Who owns your ISRC codes? The plain answer

An ISRC is an identifier, not property. Nobody "owns" the 12 characters the way you own a recording. What matters is two separate things people mix up: whose prefix the code was minted under (the registrant) and whose recording it identifies (you, if you own your masters). Once a code is assigned to your recording, it stays with that recording for life, and it travels with you when you change distributors. This guide unpacks the rest: what the code is, who issues yours at the big distributors, what transfers on a switch and how to find your codes today.

What an ISRC is

ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. It is the identification system stores and licensing companies use to tell recordings apart: a 12-character fingerprint for one specific recording, independent of format, per the US ISRC Agency. Two songs with the same title never share a code. The same recording carries the same code everywhere: on the single, on the album, on a compilation ten years later.

The code has three parts: a five-character prefix (a two-letter territory code plus three characters allocated to the registrant), a two-digit year of reference and a five-digit designation code. For the ownership question, the part that matters is the prefix. It says who minted the code, and that is where the confusion starts.

Registrant vs. assignee: two different questions

The registrant is whoever holds the prefix: the party the national ISRC agency allocated those three characters to. Under the agency's rules, a registrant may use its prefix only to assign codes to recordings it owns, unless it acts as an approved ISRC Manager and assigns codes on behalf of the recording's owner. Most distributors mint your codes under one of these arrangements.

The assignee is the other half: the recording the code is assigned to, and whoever owns that recording. And here the standard is unambiguous: an ISRC stays with its recording for the life of the recording, "regardless of changes in ownership, licensing, territory or method of distribution," in the agency's words. So:

• A distributor that minted your code under its prefix does not thereby own your recording, your royalties or the code's future. The code identifies your recording, permanently.
• You can keep using that code after you leave. What you cannot do is mint new codes under the old distributor's prefix. Future releases get codes from your new distributor or from a prefix of your own.

The worry that your codes are trapped comes from mixing up the prefix (theirs) with the code on your recording, which goes where the recording goes.

Who issues your codes at the big distributors

Checked against each service's public help pages, July 2026:

Note what the table does not say: none of these defaults are a trap. Codes minted by DistroKid, TuneCore or CD Baby still identify your recordings and still travel with them. The practical differences are narrower: whose prefix appears in your metadata, whether bringing your own codes costs a plan upgrade and how much exporting your list depends on a dashboard you are about to lose access to.

What transfers when you switch, and what doesn't

Transfers with you:

• Every assigned ISRC. The code belongs with the recording for life. Enter the same codes when you redeliver through the new distributor.
• Streams and playlist placements. Stores match recordings by ISRC, so the same code keeps the same counts, as long as you deliver the new version before taking the old one down. Our switching guide walks through the order step by step.

Does not transfer:

• The prefix. Your new distributor cannot mint codes under the old one's registrant prefix, and neither can you. New recordings get new codes from the new source.
• The dashboard. When the old account closes, the tidy list of your codes closes with it. That list is the only thing you can lose, so export it first.
• UPCs behave the same way in principle, but they are release-level codes, not track-level ones, and most distributors issue a fresh UPC on redelivery unless you bring your own.

How to find your ISRCs

• Your distributor dashboard. All the big distributors show per-track ISRCs on the release or track detail page. DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby each document where.
• IFPI's ISRC search. isrcsearch.ifpi.org lets you look up published recordings by title and artist.
• Your release emails and delivery confirmations. Many distributors include codes in the confirmation when a release goes live.

Want to own the prefix too?

You can. In the United States, the US ISRC Agency allocates a Rights Owner Prefix for a one-time $95 administrative fee, with no further costs. After that, you mint your own codes for recordings you own, for life. It's worth it if you run a label or release often and want the paper trail under your own name. If you release a few times a year, you don't need it: distributor-assigned codes are valid, permanent and portable, and the prefix only decides who mints future codes.

Where Audora stands

Our position is conduct, so it is checkable: Audora creates the ISRCs for your recordings, and they're yours to keep. Your masters are yours, and so is everything made on Audora: artwork, bios and videos. Audora is the label on your releases. It gives us no ownership of your recordings. We take nothing from your royalties on any plan. If you cancel and we keep your music distributed, we recover only our distribution costs from what it earns. Everything above that is still paid to you.

On paid plans, distribution runs through The Orchard, the distribution network the major labels use, and the Distribution page shows how a release goes out. If you ever leave, the codes go with you: there is nothing to ask us for. What we owe you is set out in writing. Working artists release this way: DragonForce vocalist Marc Hudson put out his solo cover of "Golden" through Audora. Read the case study, published with his permission.