How to get an ISRC
for your song.

What you are getting

An ISRC identifies one sound recording or music video, permanently, under ISO 3901. Streaming services, neighbouring-rights societies and distributors match plays to that code. It is not a copyright registration, and it is not the barcode of the album. That barcode is the UPC. The format is covered in what an ISRC is.

Get an ISRC code free from a distributor

This is the path for almost every new independent release. DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, UnitedMasters, Amuse and most other distributors assign an ISRC when you upload, if you leave the ISRC field blank. DistroKid and Amuse both state that this assignment is free. Others include it with distribution rather than selling codes one by one. There is no separate application.

The registrant prefix on that code belongs to the distributor, not to you. The ISRC still identifies your recording, and you should keep using it if the same audio later moves to another distributor. You will not receive the code before an upload starts. It shows up in the dashboard when the distributor assigns it, which may be when you save the track or when the release is submitted or approved. How to find it afterwards covers DistroKid, TuneCore and the others. This site is not affiliated with any distributor.

Apply for an ISRC through a national agency

If you release a lot of music, run a label, or you want the prefix on the code to be yours, apply to the national ISRC agency where you are based. They allocate a registrant code. The US agency calls this a Rights Owner Prefix. You then assign the year and the five-digit designation yourself, and you keep a register of every code.

In the United States the agency is the RIAA's US ISRC Agency at usisrc.org. Its site lists a one-time administrative fee of $95 for the prefix. After that, assigning codes to your own recordings has no per-track charge from the agency. You need to be based in the United States to use that agency. Other countries have their own agency, often a recording-industry body, and set their own fees. You do not apply to IFPI for a single song code. The national agency is the route. ISRC Finder is not an agency and cannot file the application.

Assigning codes once you have a prefix

A full ISRC is 12 characters: agency prefix (2), your registrant code (3), year of reference (2) and designation (5). You choose the designation. A simple register starts at 00001 and counts up, with a row for the code, title, artist, version and duration. The year of reference is the year you assign the code, which is not always the year the song was recorded.

Keep the log. A code that exists only in your head will be reused by accident, and a reused ISRC is a metadata error that stores and societies will not sort out for you.

Never reuse a code

An ISRC identifies exactly one recording, for good. Do not give a deleted song's code to a new song. Do not share one code between an explicit version and a clean version if the audio differs. Do not mint a second code for the same audio because you switched distributors: paste the original into the new upload. A duplicated or recycled code sends streams and royalties to the wrong row, or splits them.

What needs a new ISRC

A new mix, a remix, a remaster that changes the audio, a radio edit, an extended version, a live recording, an acoustic re-record and a music video each need a new ISRC. Re-releasing the exact same audio, on a compilation, a deluxe edition or in another country, keeps the original ISRC.

The release can still need a new UPC, because the product is new even when the recording is not. If a form asks for ISRC, UPC and ISWC together, ISRC vs UPC vs ISWC says which box is which. A cover needs a new ISRC and keeps the original composition's ISWC.

This site does not assign codes

The lookup on this page searches public catalogs. It cannot create an ISRC, reserve one, or register you with an agency. If a search for your unreleased song returns nothing, that is expected: nothing is in the stores until someone assigns a code and the release is delivered. Get the code from your distributor or your national agency first.

After you have the code

Write it down before release day. Check the distributor page shows the code you intended, especially if one album mixes your own codes and distributor-assigned ones. After the release is live, search the ISRC here to confirm stores show the right title and version. For a song that is already out, find the ISRC of that recording from a title or a streaming link.