The International Standard Recording Code is an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. The code was developed by the recording industry in conjunction with the ISO technical committee 46, subcommittee 9, which codified the standard as ISO 3901 in 1986, and updated it in 2001. An ISRC identifies a particular recording, not the work itself. Therefore, different recordings, edits, and remixes of the same work should each have their own ISRC. Works are identified by ISWC. Recordings remastered or revised in other ways should be assigned a new ISRC.
History
ISO 3901 was completed in 1986. In 1988, the IFPI recommended that its member companies adopt ISRCs for music videos. In 1989, the ISO designated the IFPI as the registration authority for ISRCs. The IFPI, in turn, delegated part of the administration of ISRCs to several dozen national agencies, which allocate ISRCs to both record companies and individuals. The national agencies began assigning ISRCs for music videos in August 1989. The Japanese recording industry began encoding ISRCs on audio CDs in November 1989. The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America then developed detailed recommendations for this practice, and for ISRC assignment in general. The IFPI adopted the recommendations in March 1991 and they went into effect for IFPI members on 1 January 1992.
Format
ISRC codes are always 12 characters long, in the form "CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN". The hyphens are not part of the ISRC code itself, but codes are often presented that way in print to make them easier to read. The four parts are as follows:
"CC" is the appropriate two-character country code for the ISRC issuer. The code is assigned according to the ISO 3166-1-Alpha-2 standard.
"XXX" is a three character alphanumeric registrant code of the ISRC issuer. This number by itself does NOT uniquely identify the ISRC issuer as the same 3-digit number may be used in various countries for different issuers. To uniquely identify an issuer, the country code and registrant code should be used together.
"YY" represent the last two digits of the reference year – the year that the ISRC was assigned to the recording. This is not necessarily the date the recording was made.
"NNNNN" is a 5-digit number that identifies the particular sound or video recording, unique within the scope of the reference year.
Example: A recording of the song "Crazy Eyes" by American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates has been allocated the ISRC code USRC17607839:
07839 as the unique id identifying this particular recording
Embedding ISRC in files
The most common file formats that ISRC codes can be embedded into presently are MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, and WAV for audio. For video ISRCs, embedding is generally performed on MP4 or M4V files. Embedding ISRCs into individual files for online distribution differs from embedding ISRCs onto a CD. The Red Book standard recommends to embed ISRCs onto CDs. The two types of ISRC embedding are not generally interchangeable and should be done separately. The standard for the ID3v2.2 tag that was designed for use in MP3 files, was published on March 1998 and defined a way to embed ISRCs in a 'TSRC' frame. On August 2012, the European Broadcasting Union published a specification for embedding ISRCs in Broadcast Wave Format.
Obtaining ISRCs
The provision of ISRCs is overseen by appointed . These national ISRC agencies issue codes directly to the public and may also utilize authorized ISRC Managers to issue ISRCs. In the United States, the appointed agency is RIAA. ISRC codes can be obtained in large blocks directly from RIAA for an administrative fee, in quantities as little as 1 from , or in conjunction with other music-related services from other authorized ISRC managers. In territories where there is no national ISRC agency, users can obtain ISRC codes directly from IFPI or from and .
