As you upload releases onto our Client Zone, you will be asked for a number of identifiers. These are used by ourselves, and the stores we are partnered with, to distinguish which releases belong to which artist, as well as for accounting and royalty payment purposes. There are several metadata terms used to do this, here we will explain their differences.
These identifiers work like digital fingerprints, therefore they should be as unique as the content you send to us.
Here we explain will in more detail about the metadata identifiers and look at how they should be formatted. Some identifiers are automatically generated by our system if you don’t have one of your own, but there are others that you need to enter yourself.
Metadata Terms Explained
UPC or Barcode – A UPC (Universal Product Code), also known as a Barcode, is usually a 12-digit identifier that is used differentiate between products such as singles, EPs, albums, ringtones and music videos. Barcodes are the most common form of identification and are used by record labels, digital stores and ourselves. Some barcodes start with a 0, making them 13-digits long – make sure that Excel or any other program you use doesn’t remove this number. Don’t worry if you don’t have your own Barcode as our system will automatically generate one for you.
GRid – A GRid (Global Release Identifier) is used to identify digital audio releases for electronic distribution. It is made up of 18 alpha-numeric characters and is issued by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). Although a valuable identifier, it is not commonly used so it only needs to be entered if you have one.
ISRC – An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is used to uniquely identify sound recordings and music videos. It refers to each individual song on the release so a 10 track album would have 10 different ISRC’s for each track on the album, even for remixes. Some stores use ISRCs as their primary identifier so making sure that they are correctly formatted is very important. They consist of a 2-character country code, a 3-character registrant code, a 2-digit code referring to the year, and 5-digits designation code. If you don’t have your own ISRC our system will automatically generate one for you.
Artist name and Release title – These are used for finding products, especially once they are live on stores. It’s vital that the information you submit is formatted in the way you’d like it to appear on stores. Titles should be formatted in ‘Title Casing’ and should also match the title written on your artwork. Failure to format these correctly will lead to your release being un-submitted by a member of our team. You will then be asked to correct it and re-submit to use before it is sent to stores.
If you are still in doubt about these or any other metadata terms, just ask. We’re happy to help!
