ISRC and UPC codes, and the code finder
What an ISRC and a UPC identify, where yours come from, and how to look up the codes on any release with the finder in Tools.
Two codes travel with everything you release. They are how stores, platforms and reporting systems agree on what a thing is, which is why they matter well beyond the release form.
| Code | Identifies | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| ISRC | One recording | 12 characters, country and registrant and year and a serial number |
| UPC | One release, as a product on the shelf | 12 or 13 digits (a UPC or EAN barcode) |
An ISRC belongs to a recording, not to a song. The same song recorded twice, a remix, a live take, a re-record: each is a separate recording and carries its own ISRC. A UPC belongs to the release as a whole, so a single has one, an EP has one, and an album has one, whatever the tracklist is.
Once assigned, both are permanent. A code identifies that recording or that release everywhere, forever, which is what lets a store keep a release’s plays and playlist placements attached to it.
Where yours come from
You have two options on every release, and the form takes either.
- Leave the field blank. After your release is approved, Run assigns a permanent ISRC using its FX-S09 prefix to each recording that needs one. Your release barcode is assigned by our distribution partner during delivery. The codes appear in your release details when assigned. This is the normal path for new music.
- Enter codes you already hold. If a release has been out before, through another distributor or your own registration, type in the existing barcode and ISRCs. Reusing the codes is what keeps the stores’ history on that release: the plays, the saves and the playlist placements stay attached instead of the release arriving as something brand new.
If you are moving a catalog across, that second option is the whole game. Import from Spotify carries barcodes and ISRCs over for you where the store publishes them, and take the release down at your old distributor once it is live through Run.
Our checks reject a barcode already used on another release in the catalog, and an ISRC already used by someone else, because two things sharing an identifier is exactly what the identifier exists to prevent. An ISRC you have already used on another of your own releases is flagged for a reviewer rather than refused, since that is the expected outcome when the same recording is released again. See Metadata rules.
An ISRC assigned by Run stays with that recording, including when a release is reopened for corrections or taken down. Metadata corrections do not create a new ISRC. For a different recording, create a new track. The year inside an ISRC is the year the code was assigned; it can differ from the recording or release year.
The code finder
Tools › ISRC + UPC finder looks up the codes on any release the stores have published, yours or anyone’s. It is open on every plan.
Paste one of:
- a track or album link from Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music (localised links and the tracking bits on the end are fine);
- a store URI, the
spotify:album:…ordeezer:track:…form the desktop apps copy; - a bare ISRC or UPC, to go the other way and find out what a code belongs to.
You get back the release or the single recording, its barcode, and every track with its ISRC. Each code has its own copy button, and two more copy the whole result: Copy list for a plain list you can paste into a message or a metadata sheet, and Copy CSV for a spreadsheet.
Things worth knowing
Short share links have to be expanded first. A spotify.link, apple.co or Deezer share link hides the real id behind a redirect, and the finder will not follow one. Open the link, then paste the full store address it lands on.
An Apple Music link is matched by title. Apple’s public catalog does not publish these codes at all, so an Apple link is resolved by matching its title and artist against a store that does publish them. The result is labelled “Matched by search · verify before use”, and that label is meant literally: it is the best candidate, not a fact. Check it against the release before you use it for anything.
The codes come from the stores. A release that has not been delivered yet has no codes to find, and a store that never returned an ISRC for a track shows the · placeholder rather than a blank.
Long releases are cut off. A lookup returns up to 50 tracks. Past that, the result says so and points you at the store page for the rest.
What you would use it for
- Filling a release form for music that is already out, so the re-delivery keeps its history.
- Sending your ISRCs to a playlist pitch, a sync brief, a sample clearance or a collecting society registration.
- Working out which release a code on a statement or a spreadsheet belongs to.
- Checking that the codes on a live release are what you think they are.