International Standard Musical Work Code

The International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) is a unique identifier for musical works, similar to ISBN for books. It is adopted as international standard ISO 15707. The ISO subcommittee with responsibility for the standard is TC 46/SC 9.

Format

Each code is composed of three parts:^[1]

prefix element (1 character)
work identifier (9 digits)
check digit (1 digit)

Currently, the only prefix defined is "T", indicating Musical works. However, additional prefixes may be defined in the future to expand the available range of identifiers and/or expand the system to additional types of works.

Computation of the check digit

With

$d_{i}$ : one of the nine digits of the work identifier (i=1 to 9) from left to right.
$C$ : check digit.

$S=1+\sum _{i=1}^{i=9}id_{i}$

$C=(10-(S\mod 10))\mod 10$

Example: T-034.524.680-C

$d_{i}$	0	3	4	5	2	4	6	8	0
$id_{i}$	0	6	12	20	10	24	42	64	0

$S=179$

$C=1$

ISWC identifiers are commonly written the form T-123.456.789-C. The grouping is for ease of reading only; the numbers do not incorporate any information about the work's region, author, publisher, etc. Rather, they are simply issued in sequence. These separators are not required, and no other separators are allowed.

The first ISWC was assigned in 1995, for the song "Dancing Queen" by ABBA; the code is T-000.000.001-0.^[2]

Usage

To register an ISWC, the following minimal information must be supplied:

title
names of all composers, arrangers and authors, with their role in the piece (identified by role code) and their CAE/IPI number
work classification code (CIS)
identification of other works it is a derivative of

Note: an ISWC identifies works, not recordings. ISRC can be used to identify recordings. Nor does it identify individual publications (e.g. issues of a recording on physical media, sheet music, broadcast at a particular frequency/modulation/time/location...)

Its primary purpose is in collecting society administration, and to clearly identify works in legal contracts. It would also be useful in library cataloguing.

Due to the fact that a musical work can have multiple authors, it is inevitable that, on rare occasions, a duplicate ISWC might exist and might not be detected immediately. Because of the existing business practices among collecting societies, it is not possible to simply declare an ISWC as obsolete. In such cases, as soon as they are identified, the system will deal with duplicate registrations by linking such registration records in the ISWC database and its related products.^[3]

References

^ Willer, Mirna, ed. (2009). "International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC)". UNIMARC Manual: Authorities Format. IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control. Vol. 38 (3rd ed.). München: K. G. Saur Verlag. p. 54. ISBN 978-3-598-24286-1. The third element of the ISWC is the check digit. This is calculated using a MOD 10 algorithm.
^ "ISWC: Portal".
^ http://www.collectionscanada.ca/iso/tc46sc9/docs/sc9n298.pdf Archived 2007-03-17 at the Wayback Machine ^{[bare URL PDF]}

New ISO standard for worldwide identification of musical works/key

External links

[1] Willer, Mirna, ed. (2009). "International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC)". UNIMARC Manual: Authorities Format. IFLA Series on Bibliographic Control. Vol. 38 (3rd ed.). München: K. G. Saur Verlag. p. 54. ISBN 978-3-598-24286-1. The third element of the ISWC is the check digit. This is calculated using a MOD 10 algorithm.

[2] "ISWC: Portal".

[3] ttp://www.collectionscanada.ca/iso/tc46sc9/docs/sc9n298.pdf Archived 2007-03-17 at the Wayback Machine ^{[bare URL PDF]}

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e ISO standards by standard number
List of ISO standards – ISO romanizations – IEC standards
1–9999	1 2 3 4 6 7 9 16 17 31 -0 -1 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12 -13 68-1 128 216 217 226 228 233 259 261 262 302 306 361 500 518 519 639 -1 -2 -3 -5 -6 646 657 668 690 704 732 764 838 843 860 898 965 999 1000 1004 1007 1073-1 1073-2 1155 1413 1538 1629 1745 1989 2014 2015 2022 2033 2047 2108 2145 2146 2240 2281 2533 2709 2711 2720 2788 2848 2852 2921 3029 3103 3166 -1 -2 -3 3297 3307 3601 3602 3864 3901 3950 3977 4031 4157 4165 4217 4909 5218 5426 5427 5428 5725 5775 5776 5800 5807 5964 6166 6344 6346 6373 6385 6425 6429 6438 6523 6709 6943 7001 7002 7010 7027 7064 7098 7185 7200 7498 -1 7637 7736 7810 7811 7812 7813 7816 7942 8000 8093 8178 8217 8373 8501-1 8571 8583 8601 8613 8632 8651 8652 8691 8805/8806 8807 8820-5 8859 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -8-I -9 -10 -11 -12 -13 -14 -15 -16 8879 9000/9001 9036 9075 9126 9141 9227 9241 9293 9314 9362 9407 9496 9506 9529 9564 9592/9593 9594 9660 9797-1 9897 9899 9945 9984 9985 9995
10000–19999	10006 10007 10116 10118-3 10160 10161 10165 10179 10206 10218 10279 10303 -11 -21 -22 -28 -238 10383 10585 10589 10628 10646 10664 10746 10861 10957 10962 10967 11073 11170 11172 11179 11404 11544 11783 11784 11785 11801 11889 11898 11940 (-2) 11941 11941 (TR) 11992 12006 12052 12182 12207 12234-2 12620 13211 -1 -2 13216 13250 13399 13406-2 13450 13485 13490 13567 13568 13584 13616 13816 13818 14000 14031 14224 14289 14396 14443 14496 -2 -3 -6 -10 -11 -12 -14 -17 -20 14617 14644 14649 14651 14698 14764 14882 14971 15022 15189 15288 15291 15398 15408 15444 -3 -9 15445 15438 15504 15511 15686 15693 15706 -2 15707 15897 15919 15924 15926 15926 WIP 15930 15938 16023 16262 16355-1 16485 16612-2 16750 16949 (TS) 17024 17025 17100 17203 17369 17442 17506 17799 18004 18014 18181 18245 18629 18916 19005 19011 19092 -1 -2 19114 19115 19125 19136 19407 19439 19500 19501 19502 19503 19505 19506 19507 19508 19509 19510 19600 19752 19757 19770 19775-1 19794-5 19831
20000–29999	20000 20022 20121 20400 20802 20830 21000 21001 21047 21122 21500 21827 22000 22275 22300 22301 22395 22537 23000 23003 23008 23009 23090-3 23092 23094-1 23094-2 23270 23271 23360 23941 24517 24613 24617 24707 24728 25178 25964 26000 26262 26300 26324 27000 series 27000 27001 27002 27005 27006 27729 28000 29110 29148 29199-2 29500
30000+	30170 31000 32000 37001 38500 39075 40500 42010 45001 50001 55000 56000 80000
Category