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Free ISRC tool

ISRC code lookup,
made simple

Have an ISRC code and want to know the song? Have a song and need its ISRC? Use the tool below. Free, no sign-up, no jargon.

By Christiaan Maks, Founder & DeveloperUpdated

Look up a song by ISRC

Paste an ISRC code below to see the song it belongs to: artist, title, and genre.

Find a song's ISRC code

Type an artist and song title to find the ISRC code for that recording.

Searches a catalog of 93M+ recordings. Free, no sign-up. Results are for reference and metadata lookup.

Start here

What is an ISRC code?

An ISRC, or International Standard Recording Code, is a unique 12-character ID for a single sound recording. Think of it as a fingerprint for one specific recording of a song.

Once a recording is given an ISRC, that code travels with it: onto Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, onto a compilation album, into a music video, into a radio play log. It is never reused for anything else. That is what makes it so useful: streaming services, labels, and royalty systems can all agree on exactly which recording they mean, even when dozens of songs share a title.

The shape of the code. An ISRC is written in four parts, for example US-RC1-76-07839: country, registrant, year, and a five-digit designation. The dashes are only there for readability; the code itself is 12 characters. To break a specific code apart, or to check that one is well-formed, use the free ISRC validator and decoder. The middle block is covered in depth on the registrant code reference, and if you're looking for a code for your own unreleased track, start with why ISRC generators don't exist.

One song, many codes

Why one song has several ISRCs

This is the part that trips people up, and most explainers skip it. An ISRC belongs to a recording, and labels mint a fresh one for every commercial variant they put out. So a single well-travelled song routinely carries a whole handful of them.

Radio edit

A shorter cut for airplay, often with a different intro or a clean vocal. A new master, so a new ISRC.

Extended / club mix

The long version pressed for DJs. Same song, different recording, different code.

Remaster

The 2011 remaster of a 1997 album is a distinct master, and it is issued with its own ISRC.

Reissue

An anniversary edition or a catalog move to a new label routinely brings a fresh code with it.

Regional release

The same recording put out through a different territory or distributor can pick up a second ISRC.

Live take

Every performance is its own recording, so a live version never shares the studio version's ISRC.

The practical consequence: asking for the ISRC of a song is often a question with more than one right answer. If you search by title, you can easily get back a different code than the one printed on the specific release you are holding, and neither of them is wrong. Whenever a code has to line up with something else (a play log, a royalty statement, a delivery), match the exact version and release, not just the song.

It is also why we keep every ISRC we find rather than picking a favourite. Deduplication collapses the variants of a recording onto one canonical track, but all of the codes stay attached to it, so a lookup on any one of them lands on the same record. Cross-source disagreement about “the” ISRC of a track is normal, not a data bug.

Finding one

How to find a song's ISRC

Streaming apps don't show ISRC codes to listeners, so the simplest way to find one is a metadata database like the tool on this page.

  1. 1

    Open the finder

    Scroll to the lookup tool above and find the “Find a song’s ISRC code” box.

  2. 2

    Enter the artist and song title

    Type the artist name and the exact song title into the two fields.

  3. 3

    Pick the right version

    Press Search. Each matching recording shows its own ISRC, so check the version and the release before you copy a code: the radio edit and the extended mix are different recordings.

Chasing the composition code instead of the recording code, or wondering how an ISRC differs from a UPC? The full comparison lives on the ISRC ⇄ ISWC converter, which also crosses from any ISRC to the work behind it.

Getting your own

Getting an ISRC for your own release

Anyone releasing recorded music needs ISRCs: independent artists, labels, and distributors. They are how streaming platforms count plays and how royalties get paid to the right recording.

You don't buy ISRCs one at a time. Most musicians get them automatically: upload a track through a distributor such as DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby and it assigns an ISRC for you. You can also register directly with your national ISRC agency (for example the RIAA in the United States or PPL in the United Kingdom) to issue your own codes.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is a unique 12-character ID for a single sound recording. It identifies one specific recording of a song, for example the studio version of a track, and stays the same wherever that recording appears: Spotify, Apple Music, a compilation album, a music video, or a radio play. It is the recording industry's global serial number for a master recording.
Use the free tool above: type the artist and song title into the 'Find a song's ISRC code' box and press Search. The ISRC appears next to each matching recording. Streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music don't show ISRCs to listeners, so a metadata database like this is the easiest way to look one up.
Because an ISRC belongs to a recording, not a song, and labels mint a fresh one for every commercial variant they release: the radio edit, the extended mix, the remaster, the reissue, and often a separate regional release. All of those are the 'same song' to a listener but separate masters to the industry, so each carries its own ISRC. Asking for 'the' ISRC of a well-travelled track usually has more than one right answer, which is why a title search can return a different code than the one printed on a specific release.
An ISRC is 12 characters, usually written as CC-XXX-YY-NNNNN, for example US-RC1-76-07839. The first two letters are a country code, the next three are the registrant (the label or issuer), then two digits for the year, and five digits that uniquely number the recording. The dashes are just for readability; the code is stored as 12 characters with no dashes. The free ISRC validator decodes any code into these four parts.
You don't buy ISRCs one at a time. Most musicians get them automatically: when you upload a track through a distributor such as DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby, it assigns an ISRC for you. You can also register directly with your national ISRC agency (for example the RIAA in the US or PPL in the UK) to issue your own codes.

Need ISRC data for an app?

This tool is powered by the Sonovault API: ISRC lookup, reverse search, and cross-platform track IDs for 93M+ recordings, behind one API key.

ISRC lookup for developersView the API docs →