What is an IPI number?

An IPI number (Interested Party Information number) is the identifier the collecting-society network uses for a person or company with an interest in a musical work, such as a songwriter, composer or publisher; the IPI system provides "globally unique identification of a natural person or legal entity with an interest in an artistic work" (CISAC).

Who runs it

The IPI system and its database are administered by the Swiss copyright society SUISA, following guidelines and standards set by CISAC and BIEM (CISAC). It holds the names of rights holders in both copyright-protected and public-domain works, as notified to the IPI Centre (CISAC).

Two numbers, not one

SUISA's own explainer says there are two types of IPI number (SUISA):

• IP name number: always linked to one name, either your civil name or a pseudonym. This is the 11-digit number most people mean by "IPI", and the one used in international data exchange.
• IP base number: the "parenthesis" that holds all of one person's or publisher's name numbers together. It is not communicated outside the system and only links the name numbers.

CISAC adds that the base number is allocated automatically by the system, and that the system also records the roles a party can hold in a work and the rights involved (CISAC).

Why you can have more than one

Each rightsholder gets a number for the name on their passport (or a company name). SUISA says additional numbers are generated for known pseudonyms and name changes: a stage name, another spelling, a name changed on marriage, or a long name usually shortened. All of them are linked in the IPI system, and money collected under every one is summarised in one statement (SUISA).

The practical consequence is that a work must be registered under the name, and the matching IPI number, that will later appear in the works database. To use a new pseudonym you first tell your society so an IPI number is opened for it; only then can works be registered under it.

How you get one

You don't apply for an IPI number directly. SUISA says every person or publisher is registered in the IPI system when they join a collective management organisation, and is assigned a number then (SUISA). SUISA gives members their number with the admission confirmation and shows it in its member portal and on settlement statements. SUISA says there are no IPI numbers for bands and musical formations. Details on joining a society are in performing rights organisations explained.

SUISA lists what the system stores about a rightsholder: name, gender, date of birth (and death if applicable), place of birth, nationality, and which societies manage which rights for which territory. Having that held centrally is what lets rightsholders be identified and managed internationally.

Why it matters

An IPI number names the people; an ISWC names the song. The two are linked: the minimum metadata for an ISWC is the title plus every composer, author and arranger with their IPI numbers and roles (CISAC), and an ISWC is only assigned once all creators on the work have been uniquely identified (CISAC). For how the identifiers fit together on a release, see ISRC, ISWC and split sheets.

What we think

Put every co-writer's IPI name number on the split sheet the day the song is finished. It is the one field that is easy to collect in the room and tedious to chase later, and because the ISWC waits on every creator being identified, one missing IPI can hold up the whole song's registration.