Your ISRC is one of the most important pieces of metadata attached to a released recording.

If you’re moving away from DistroKid, organising licensing or simply building better catalogue records, you may need it.

What does an ISRC do?

An ISRC identifies a specific recording.

Each track generally has its own code.

An album with ten recordings therefore typically has ten ISRCs.

Why artists suddenly need them

ISRCs become particularly important when:

changing distributors

re-releasing existing masters

tracking repertoire

licensing music

managing label catalogues

organising metadata

Find it before closing your account

If you’re planning to leave any distributor, export all identifiers first.

Don’t wait until after the account has been closed.

Save:

track ISRC

release UPC

original release date

master filename

DSP URLs

Build your own catalogue spreadsheet

Even a simple spreadsheet is better than relying entirely on your distributor.

Your music could be generating royalties thirty years from now.

The platform you upload through today may not be the platform you use in thirty years.

Own your information.

Why this matters

Independent artists increasingly operate like small record labels.

That means catalogue data becomes infrastructure.

Your masters are assets.

Your metadata tells the world what those assets are.

Treat both accordingly.