What is the ISRC?
The ISRC was developed in order to facilitate the accurate exchange of information on ownership, the use of recordings and to simplify the administration of rights in them. It is a global, unique method of identifying sound and music video recordings.
COTT is the National Agency for Trinidad and Tobago and is the only entity in T&T that can issue TTISRCs. As the national agency, COTT will provide applicants (Master Rights Owners) with their Registrant Codes from which the ISRCs can be generated by the applicants themselves and subsequently embedded into audio/video recordings.
What is the purpose of the TT-ISRC
It Uniquely Identifies sound recordings and music Videos from within Trinidad and Tobago to the world. This enables the tracking of your recordings and videos through all their digital activities.
What are the benefits of the TT-ISRC
TT-ISRC results in Better management of royalties as a result enhanced data accuracy. Music originating in Trinidad and Tobago can be traced more accurately globally.
The ISRC for a recording remains a fixed point of reference when the recording is used across different services, across borders, or under different licensing deals. COTT is the national distributing agency for these codes.
Description of TT-ISRC
For code allocation purposes, the ISRC is separated into different elements. However, when the code is assigned, it is the whole number that represents the sound or music video recording.
1
Country Code
TT
2 Characters
2
Registrant’s Code
AIZ
3 Characters
3
Year of Reference
32
2 Digits
4
Designation Code
13205
5 Digits
TTAIZ3213205
Country Code:
This element of the code identifies the country of residence of the Registrant.
Registrant Code:
This identifies the entity/person assigning the Designation Code in an ISRC. Since ISRCs are normally assigned at the final production stage (pre-mastering), by the Registrant (Label/Executive Producer), the Registrant Code will normally reflect who the original master rights owner is.
The Registrant Code is the portion of the 12 Characters which is assigned by the National Agency (COTT)
to an entity (Label/Executive Producer), who wishes to allocate ISRCs to recordings.
Year of Reference:
This element identifies the year in which the ISRC is allocated to the recording
(not the year in which the recording was produced).
Designation Code:
This element consists of 5 digits which are assigned by the Registrant (Label/Executive Producer).
These digits function as a sort of catalog number. The Designation code should be used sequentially.
How to use your TT-ISRC
- Master Rights Owners will obtain their Registrant’s Code before the mastering stage of the production process.
- The codes are then embeded into the files during the mastering process.
- When distributing your tracks via digital distributors/publishers you enter your unique ISRC along with all other relevant meta-data.
Record Keeping for your TT-ISRC
- All metadata and code assignments should be maintained in a proper way either electronically or physically
- At time of registering with Society handling Neighboring Rights, ISRCS are to be presented to the CMO as part of the information submitted
- Rights-owners who previously obtained ISRCS directly from the International Agency or whose Digital Distributors had assigned codes to their recordings are expected to have kept a record of the codes used to date
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