ISWC

The International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC) is an ISO standard similar to ISBNs for identifying musical works / compositions.

According to the Wikipedia article about ISWC, to register an ISWC, the following minimal metadata must be supplied:

• title
• names of all composers, arrangers and authors, with their role in the piece (identified by role code) and their CAE/IPI number
• work classification code (CIS (?))
• identification of other works it is a derivative of

MusicBrainz stores ISWCs for works (since the May 2011 server release).

See also

• IPI, a number identifying persons connected to ISWC registered works (authors, composers, etc.)
• ISRC, an ISO standard for identifying recordings of music, developed by the IFPI
• Website of the registration authority

Resources

• ISWCNet database provided by CISAC. Database includes works at Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Jamaica, México, Norway, Panamá, Perú, Santa-Lucia, South-Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad Tobago, USA repertoire represented by BMI, Uruguay and Venezuela.
• Search engine for French works provided by SACEM
• Search engine for German works provided by GEMA
• Search engine for Italian works provided by SIAE
• Search engine for Spanish works
• Search engine for Japanese works provided by JASRAC
• Search engine for Swiss or Swiss related works provided by SUISA
• Search engine for (mostly US) works provided by BMI
• Search engine for (mostly US) works provided by ASCAP