Understanding ISRC codes, DDEX standards, music identifiers, and why clean metadata is the foundation of every royalty payment.
27 articles
An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a unique 12-character identifier assigned to each recorded track. DSPs use ISRCs to match recordings to the correct royalty payments. Without an ISRC, your track cannot be registered with SoundExchange, PPL, or other neighbouring rights organisations, meaning you miss royalty payments.
DDEX (Digital Data Exchange) is an international standards body that defines XML message formats for communicating music metadata between record labels, distributors, and digital service providers. DDEX ERN (Electronic Release Notification) is the format distributors use to deliver release information to Spotify, Apple Music, and other DSPs.
An ISRC identifies a specific recording (the sound recording copyright). An ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) identifies the underlying musical work (the composition and lyrics). A single song can have one ISWC but multiple ISRCs — one for the studio version, one for the live version, and so on.
Metadata errors — wrong spellings, missing ISRCs, incorrect IPI numbers — cause royalty matching failures at PROs and neighbouring rights societies. Unmatched royalties accumulate in "black box" pools and may never be paid out. Clean, standardised metadata at the point of delivery prevents these losses permanently.
A music catalog audit is a systematic review of all recordings and compositions in your catalog to verify that metadata is accurate, ISRCs and IPI numbers are correct, works are registered with the relevant PROs, and royalty streams are flowing correctly. An audit identifies and corrects gaps before they result in permanent royalty losses.
