What is the ISRC

The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) was established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to meet the need to recognize different audio and music videos. The standard is known as ISO 3901. In 2019, a new updated version was adopted – ISO 3901: 2019.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has designated the International Federation of the Recording Industry (IFPI) as the only recognized organization to implement and manage the ISO 3901 process worldwide, with the right to appoint national ISRC agencies to provide all or part of a or more of the services specified in ISO 3901.
The ISRC is a twelve-digit alphanumeric code defined by ISO 3901 as an international standard code for the unique identification of recordings (sound recordings or music videos). ISRC is the “world PIN” of every recording and music video. It is important to know that this code identifies the specific record, not the piece of music itself. Therefore, different recordings, releases and remixes of the same piece of music have their own, different ISRC codes.
The ISRC has the following format “CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN” (dashes are not part of the ISRC code itself, but codes are often presented in this way in writing, for readability). The four parts have the following meanings:
• “CC” is the corresponding country code of the registered person – two-letter country code according to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. This part of the code is provided by the National ISRC Agency, if available in the country concerned, or directly by the International ISRC Agency to IFPI.
• “XXX” is a three-character code of the registered person, which uniquely identifies the organization (producer) that registered the ISRC code. It is also determined and provided to the producer / natural or legal person / by the National ISRC Agency, if any, or directly by the International ISRC Agency to IFPI. The combination between the first two parts of the code is unique for each record and should not be changed!
• “YY” are the last two digits of the year of registration of the record, or the so-called. “Reference year”. (Note: it does not have to coincide with the year in which the recording was made.)
• “NNNNN” is a unique 5-digit number identifying the sequence of the specific sound recording during the reference year in question. record producer)