The importance of ISRC codes…

The importance of ISRC codes when sending music to DJs and radio stations.

At a time when many independent artists are in control of their own careers and wearing many hats, they choose to use a service such as CD Baby, TuneCore, Distrokid, etc to distribute their music. Part of this service is the addition of codes into the metadata that are used to track sales, streams, and radio broadcasts. The important thing to remember for an artist who independently sends out their tracks to DJs and radio stations, either themselves or through a manager, publicist, etc, is to make sure the ISRC code is embedded in the track. THIS IS HOW RADIO PLAY IS TRACKED SO THAT YOU GET PAID.

After the code has been issued by the distributor, the code should be collected from the same distributor and embedded into the track. There are free apps available online to do this which I will list at the bottom of this article. If for some reason you cannot get the ISRC code from the distributor, there is an online app that can track the ISRC code from any song once it is on Spotify. I will also put that link at the bottom. One tip I learned is once you have embedded it into the track it will save it back to your source folder, so now you have 2 copies in your folder. To distinguish which one has the code embedded, I add the word (embed) into the title just before the (.WAV) or (.MP3). If you add the ISRC code into a WAV file and then convert it to an MP3, it may transfer it but it’s always a good idea to check.

Correct labeling is always appreciated by radio stations and DJs and will definitely improve the chances of getting the music played. Tag them in this order;

 Name of artist: Song title: Album (if it’s an album track).

Jen Cheshire

Reggaewerx PR LLC.