Furthering the previous article on music metadata, today I’d like to describe my recent observations about ISRCs.
ISRC is an acronym for the “International Standard Recording Code”.
It’s a 12-character, alphanumeric code that looks something like USS1Z9800123 (hyphens are often added for readability), and it aims to uniquely identify a sound recording — irrespective whether it’s a song, spoken word, or a music video.
[It] helps to avoid ambiguity among recordings and simplifies the management of rights when recordings are used across different formats, distribution channels or products. The ISRC for a recording remains a fixed point of reference when the recording is used across different services, across borders, or under different licensing deals. — IFPI
An ISRC does not identify compositions/musical works, music products or performers; that’s the function of the ISWC: The International Standard Musical Work Code.
According to the official handbook, a song’s album version will have a different ISRC to, for instance, a radio edit or a dance remix. By extension, each live performance (if recorded for “commercial exploitation”) must be assigned its own ISRC, as would a re-recording or certain remasters. It is also largely media-agnostic: the codes don’t differentiate between vinyl, cassette, CD or download (there are caveats such as with format-specific mono/stereo/multi-channel mixes).
