Industry Terms
What Is an ISRC?
An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the unique identifier assigned to a specific recording — not the song itself, but that particular version of it.
ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. It is a 12-character alphanumeric code that permanently identifies a specific sound recording or music video worldwide. Think of it as the fingerprint for that exact recording — not the song, but the specific version, mix, or master.
The format looks like this: CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN, where CC is the country code, XXX is the registrant code assigned to the rights holder or distributor, YY is the year of registration, and NNNNN is a unique 5-digit designation.
ISRCs are critical for royalty tracking. When your song is streamed on Spotify, played on radio, or synced in a TV show, the ISRC is how performance rights organizations (PROs) and digital platforms identify your recording and route payments to the correct rights holder.
SoSouth assigns ISRCs to your recordings at the time of distribution. If your recording already has an ISRC — for example, if it was previously distributed elsewhere — you should provide that existing code rather than generating a new one. Each unique recording should have only one ISRC.
Key things to know: A remix, radio edit, or live version is a separate recording and requires its own ISRC. The ISRC stays with the recording for its entire commercial life, regardless of which distributor you use.
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