What all these names stand for? What do you need to know as a musician?

EAN or UPC

European Article Number Universal Product Code

This is an internationally unique product code often seen as a “barcode” on products. There is a European (EAN) and a US system (UPC). We will provide you with a free barcode, f you don’t already have one.

ISNI

The International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) is an ISO standard for uniquely identifying the public identities of contributors to media content. This is not mandatory in order to get your music distributed. If you need one though, you can get it online by a ISNI Registration Agency

IPI

Interested Party Information/Composer

This nine digit number identifies you as a songwriter, and it is assigned to you when you register your artist name by a collecting society. If you want to keep your artist name as composer / lyricist, please make sure that the artist name is registered at a collecting society. Otherwise you can just use your civil name.

ISRC

It stands for International Standard Recording Code and it identifies a sound recording of a track, so that it can be tracked for its digital sales and streaming income.

A track can have only 1 ISRC code, but different versions (i.e. "Radio edit", remix etc) will qualify to get a different ISRC.

You can insert your ISRC codes or leave the field blank and we will automatically assign you ISRC codes to your tracks for free. Please consider that, when switching distributor, you should take note and use the same ISRC codes, especially if you want to keep your statistics consistent and avoid issues with your future sales reports.

ISWC

It stands for International Standard Musical Work Code and identifies a composition and is generally provided by your publisher or from a collective society, like ASCAP, SACEM, SIAE, SUISA, etc. A composition is a musical work, either vocal or instrumental. It protects musical elements of the song like the melody and lyrics (credited to the composer and lyricist). A composition can have more than one sound recording versions.

For more terms, please check out our glossary!