What is an ISRC?

An ISRC, the International Standard Recording Code, is a code that identifies a single sound recording or music video so it can be tracked wherever it is sold or streamed. The International ISRC Agency is explicit that it does not identify compositions or musical works, music products or performers (ISRC Agency). The song you wrote gets a different code (an ISWC); the recording of it gets the ISRC.

How the code is built

An ISRC has 12 alphanumeric characters in three parts (ISRC structure):

• Prefix code: five characters allocated by an ISRC agency.
• Year of reference: the last two digits of the year the code is assigned to the track, so codes from earlier years cannot be re-assigned by accident.
• Designation code: five digits chosen by the registrant, which must not repeat within the same calendar year.

Who issues them

Labels apply for their own prefix, and the agency also points self-releasing artists to an online assignment route (ISRC Agency). National agencies handle prefixes in many countries. For India, the agency contact list names The Indian Music Industry (indianmi.org, isrc@indianmi.org). If your country is not listed, you apply to the International ISRC Agency directly (agency contacts).

In practice most independent artists never touch a prefix: their distributor assigns ISRCs on upload. That is fine, but the codes then sit under the distributor's prefix.

What we think

Treat the ISRC as the recording's passport, and keep your own copy. Write each code into your split sheet and release notes the day it is assigned, and reuse that same code when you move distributors, rather than letting a new one be generated. A fresh code splits a track's play history across two identities, and untangling that later is far harder than a spreadsheet column now. If you release more than a handful of tracks a year in India, a prefix of your own through IMI is worth asking about, so your catalogue's identity is not tied to whichever distributor you started with.