WTF - IRSC Code?

(Maybe I should have posted this on I Make Music but thought I might get more responses here.)

It's ISRC code, and here is what you do:

1) Register a company code with the ISRC people.

2) Make up whatever ISRC code you want, as long as it follows the fomat you'll see in that link, i.e. XX-YYY-##-ZZZZZ, where XX is the country code, YYY is your company code, ## is the year, and ZZZZZ is whatever 5-digit number you want, although it's customary to start with 00001 and then work up.

3) Encode the ISRC format on the disk in mastering.

4) Provide your friendly local digital downlaod service with the ISRC code when you upload your tracks for sale.

Hope that helps. It baffled me too at first!

It's very useful to have if you plan on selling your tracks through iTunes or whatever, but otherwise don't worry about it. You can always assign them later.

Damn, if it's that easy, sounds like we should have done that already when the last track was made available for sale online.

Yeah, the only official thing you have to do is register your company code. Everything else is up to you, and then you provide the code to other people. iTunes, at least, requires an ISRC code AFAIK, but I've assigned ISRC codes for albums that came out thirty years ago, so.

Well, I think the record company handled it last time. But this time (different company) the record company emailed us and asked for one!

Is the arrangement this time that you've put it out on your own label and they're distributing/licensing it? If not, it's the label's responsibility.

I mean, you can do it yourself, and it might be handy for the future to register your own company code, but if it's coming out as a release of the record company, the record company should assign the ISRC codes. It's possible that they're asking if you've already assigned the codes (i.e. when you mastered it) to make sure they don't double-assign them.

Thanks for all the info!

At the moment, we're releasing tracks on a couple of different labels, kind of all over the place. So is the code assigned to the song, or just that recording of it? I mean, the only thing I'm concerned about is if we release Track 1 on Record Company A, and Track 2 on Record Company B, then end up using Tracks 1 and 2 on Album X with Record Company C, will the numbers be all over the place?

(Why do I make things so complicated for myself?)

Just that recording of it. Sounds like you definitely should be assigning the numbers yourself, so you can keep track of all this.

In the above scenario, the ISRC codes for the songs as they appeared on the singles would be the same when they were used on the album, unless they were a different recording or a SIGNIFICANTLY different mix. Some of the larger manufacturers also require ISRC codes.

hrmmm... I think then the answer is to use significantly different recordings for these one-shot single and comp type deals than when we get around to the album, and get a code by the time we do the album. (Also that way, we sucker completists into buying more than one version of the songs, heh heh.)

Hurrah, I've got one now! That was easy!