What an ISRC actually is
ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. It is assigned per recording, not per song, so a studio version, a live version, a radio edit and a remix each carry a different ISRC even though they share a title and a songwriter.
The code is twelve characters and reads in four parts. USUG1 1904206 breaks down as US (country of the registrant), UG1 (the registrant code assigned to the label or distributor), 19 (the year of reference) and 04206 (the designation code, unique within that registrant and year).
- •Country code: two letters, where the registrant is based
- •Registrant code: three characters identifying the label or distributor
- •Year of reference: two digits for the year the ISRC was assigned
- •Designation code: five digits, unique to that registrant and year
When you need to look up an ISRC
Most artists need an ISRC at moments where money or credit is on the line. Registering with a performing rights organisation, filing a claim on YouTube Content ID, submitting to a chart, disputing a mis-attributed stream, pitching to a playlist team or delivering a track to a sync library all require the exact recording code.
It also matters when you are cleaning up a catalog. If two distributors delivered the same recording twice, you end up with two ISRCs pointing at one master, splitting your streams and your royalties across two rows in every report.
How to read the result
Alongside the ISRC you get the UPC of the release it appeared on, the label credited on that release, the release date, the duration and, where the catalog carries it, the tempo in BPM. Copy any value with one click.
Results come from Deezer's public catalog and Apple's public album data, so anything commercially released and distributed to streaming should be found. Unreleased tracks, private uploads and releases that never reached streaming will not appear.
Getting ISRCs for your own unreleased music
If your track is not out yet, there is nothing to find: an ISRC only exists once someone assigns one. Your distributor issues one automatically at upload, or you can apply to your national ISRC agency for your own registrant code and assign them yourself, which is worth doing if you release regularly and want the codes to stay with you rather than with whichever distributor you used that year.