From artist + title to a report-ready file
GVL is Germany's neighbouring-rights society. It matches broadcast reports to recordings by ISRC — or by artist, title, and duration when the ISRC is missing — and its own guidance is that the more data you provide, the more accurate the match. Most station play logs don't carry the ISRC.
SonoVault's Bulk Lookup closes that gap. Paste a list of tracks with just the artist and title, resolve them against a catalog of 90M+ recordings, and download a file with Artist, Title, Album, Label, and ISRC for every track — ready for your broadcast report.
Resolve your play log in the Bulk Lookup tool in your SonoVault dashboard. A free account includes 1,000 lookups a month — no credit card needed.
🇩🇪 What GVL needs from your report
GVL administers the neighbouring rights of performing artists and producers of sound recordings — the statutory claims that arise when a commercially released recording is broadcast or publicly communicated in Germany. It's the recording and performance side; GEMA licenses the authors' rights in the underlying work. A broadcaster or web-radio operator typically needs both a GEMA and a GVL licence.
Broadcasters report what they played to GVL as a Sendemeldung (broadcast report). GVL matches that usage to a recording either by an identical ISRC or by the combination of artist, title, and duration — and its guidance is blunt: the more data you provide, the more accurate the matching. ISRC is the strongest key, with label, label code (LC), EAN/UPC, and catalogue number supporting identification. Usage that can't be matched lands in an unallocated pool that rightsholders then have to claim by hand.
The gap most reporters hit: radio and web-radio playout exports reliably carry artist, title, timestamp, and duration — but rarely the ISRC, record label, or label code GVL leans on hardest. Without them, usage falls into GVL's unallocated pool. That's the gap this tool fills.
How it works
- 1
Paste your artist + title list
Drop in a column of tracks — a station play log, a setlist, or a catalog export — one per line, up to 1,000. Or import a CSV and map the Artist and Title columns.
- 2
Resolve to ISRC + label
Press Resolve. Each line is matched to a canonical recording and its ISRC, album, and record label — the fields a usage report relies on to identify a recording.
- 3
Download the enriched file
Export a CSV with Artist, Title, Album, Label, and ISRC for every track, then map those columns to the format your society's report expects.
What SonoVault adds to each track
One row per track, enriched with the recording identifier and clean release data your report needs.
ArtistThe featured artist, cleaned to its canonical spelling.TitleThe recording's title, normalised against the catalog.AlbumThe release the recording appears on.LabelThe record label that released the recording.ISRCThe 12-character recording code, upper-cased — the reliable recording identifier.ISRC, plus clean metadata
GVL matches by identical ISRC, or by artist + title + duration, supported by label, label code, and release data. SonoVault returns the ISRC and clean release metadata so more of your usage matches automatically.
One 12-character code that names the exact recording — the studio cut, the radio edit, the remaster all have their own. It is the cleanest, highest-match way to tie a reported play to the right recording.
Clean, canonical release data corroborates the match and stands in when an ISRC is unavailable. SonoVault returns all of it, normalised against a 90M-recording catalog.
Common uses
Broadcast report (Sendemeldung)
GVL's broadcast report matches best on the ISRC. Resolve your play log once and attach the ISRC and label so more lines match automatically.
Web radio / webcasting
Turn an artist + title log from your automation system into a file with ISRC, album, and label attached, ready for your GVL report.
Claim unallocated usage
Recover the ISRCs for tracks sitting in GVL's unallocated pool so they can be claimed against the right recordings.
Fill missing ISRCs
Older or third-party recordings without ISRCs on file, matched against a 90M-recording catalog to recover the codes.
Reporting to another collecting society?
SonoVault supplies the ISRC and metadata for these reporting flows too.
Frequently asked questions
Enrich your report free
A free SonoVault account includes 1,000 lookups a month. Paste your artist + title list, resolve it to ISRC, album, and label, and export the file — no credit card, no code.
Not affiliated with GVL. SonoVault is an independent music metadata service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Gesellschaft zur Verwertung von Leistungsschutzrechten (GVL). We supply ISRC, label, and release data; you are responsible for your own membership, licences, and reporting, and for confirming GVL's current requirements. Always verify data before you submit it. Official sources: GVL — About · GVL — Broadcasting and GVL.