Music Sound

International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) is a unique identifier for musical works, similar to ISBN. It is adopted as international standard ISO 15707.

Format:

1. letter T
2. 9 digits
3. 1 check digit

The first ISWC was assigned in 1995, for the Album Dancing Queen by ABBA, the code is T-000000001-0.

To register an ISWC, the following minimal metadata 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.

External links

• The registration authority
• TC 46 SC 9 website
• http://www.iswc.org/iswc/en/html/Agencies.html