ISWC for Creators and Publishers

As soon as Creators and Publishers register their works with a Registration Agency (typically Collective Management Organisations or Rights Management Entities, acting in different countries), ISWCs will be allocated according to several rules, more specifically:

• Complete metadata must be provided, including the Original Title and the IPI Name Numbers and Roles of all creators included in the work.
• At least one of the creators must be affiliated to the Registration Agency (i.e. the creator is an affiliate of the underlying CMO or RME).

Three specific services are available to Publishers:

• The IAS (ISWC Allocation Service) allows for the allocation of ISWCs as soon as the complete metadata is known by the Publisher and before the work is registered to a CMO or RME. 
  
  Please contact your society of affiliation directly to request access.
  
  Technical information can be found here: ISWC Allocation Service for Publishers
  
   
• The IRS (ISWC Resolution Service) enables a Publisher to match its database against the ISWC System, either to validate its ISWCs or to retrieve ISWCs that are not in its database yet. This is provided as a central service by CISAC.
  
  If you are interested, please review the Terms and Conditions for information hereunder, and complete this form. Once your response has been processed, we will contact you for the next steps.
  
  Technical information can be found here: ISWC Resolution Service for Publishers
  
   
• In addition, a new ISWC IPI Context Search was developed based on the ISWC database and allows music publishers to search for creator IPI numbers using a creator’s name and one or more known musical work titles.
  
  This new service complements existing tools such as the IPI Pocket Edition provided by SUISA (who administers the global IPI database) and builds on CISAC’s suite of ISWC-related services supporting global metadata accuracy.
  
  To access the service, you can complete the form available here, and you’ll be requested to sign the terms and conditions for ISWC related services by publishers as available below for your information.
  
  Technical information can be found here: ISWC IPI Context Search

Should you have any questions, please contact us at publisher.services@cisac.org.