A musician’s guide to ISRCs and UPCs

Before your music can be streamed, sold, tracked — or paid for — it needs an identity. That’s where standardized codes like ISRC and UPC come in. They make your tracks discoverable, reportable, and (most importantly) help you get paid.

But where did these codes come from — and how do they actually work?

A little history

The UPC (Universal Product Code) was introduced in the 1970s to track retail products. The music industry adopted it to catalog CDs, vinyl, and later, digital releases. It identifies your release — an album, EP, or single.

The UPC (Universal Product Code) was introduced in the 1970s to track retail products. The music industry adopted it to track CDs, vinyl, and later, digital releases. It identifies your release — an album, EP, or single.

The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) came in 1989, created by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) to tag and track individual recordings. Each version of a song (remix, radio edit, live version) gets its own ISRC. This code helps track usage across streaming, radio, downloads, and sync.

Who oversees this?

• ISRCs are managed by national agencies under the IFPI. In the U.S., that’s the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Distributors usually assign them automatically, or you can request your own prefix if you're self-releasing.

• UPCs are overseen globally by GS1, a nonprofit that sets barcode standards. Your distributor usually takes care of this as well.

How metadata connects to your codes

Every ISRC or UPC is tied to a bundle of metadata — structured info about your track that includes:

• Song title

• Artist name

• Featured artists

• Songwriters and publishers

• Producer, mixer, mastering engineer

• Release date

• Genre, tempo, mood, lyrics

• Album artwork

When this metadata is clean and complete, it gets attached to your codes and travels with your music to streaming platforms, licensing libraries, royalty collection agencies, and databases around the world.

That’s how they know who to credit — and who to pay.

Why this matters

If your codes or metadata are missing or wrong:

• Your song might show up under someone else’s profile

• You might not appear in search or recommendation engines

• You could miss royalties entirely

• You could lose opportunities for sync or playlisting

Bottom line

Your music isn’t just audio — it’s data. Codes like ISRC and UPC, and the metadata attached to them, are how your music gets recognized in the digital world.

They’re how your work is found, credited, and connected to you — wherever it goes.