International Standard Musical Work Code
The International Standard Musical Work Code is a unique identifier for musical works, similar to the book's ISBN. It is adopted as international standard ISO 15707. The ISO subcommittee responsible for the standard is TC 46/SC 9.
Format
Each code is composed of three parts:- prefix element
- work identifier
- check digit
Computation of the check digit
With- : one of the nine digits of the work identifier from left to right.
- : check digit.
Example: T-034.524.680-C
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 0 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 0 | |
| 0 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 10 | 24 | 42 | 64 | 0 |
ISWC identifiers are commonly written the form T-123.456.789-C. The grouping is for easy reading only; the numbers do not incorporate 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.
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 and their CAE/IPI number
- work classification code
- identification of other works it is a derivative of
Its primary purpose is collecting society administration and 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 not be detected immediately. Because of the existing business practices among collecting societies, it is not possible to 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.