What an ISWC is, and why you don’t get paid without one
The code that identifies your composition all over the world, and the difference between registering, filing and protecting a song.
4 min read
ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is the international code that identifies a musical work, that is, the composition, lyrics and melody, regardless of who recorded it. It looks like T-034.524.680-1: a T, nine digits and a check digit.
Without it, Ecad (Brazil’s central office that collects and distributes public performance royalties) cannot connect a play on the radio, on streaming or at a concert to the song you wrote. The money exists and has been collected, but it is held back or goes to the wrong rights holder.
An ISWC is not an ISRC
They are two codes for two different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in the market:
- ISWC identifies the work: the composition. The rights holders are the songwriter, co-writers, the translator of a lyric version and the publisher. It generates copyright.
- ISRC identifies the master recording: that specific recording. The rights holders are the performer, the session musicians and the record producer. It generates neighboring rights.
The same work can have ten master recordings: ten ISRCs, one ISWC. If another artist covers your song, a new ISRC is created and the ISWC stays the same.
Three things that look the same and aren’t
Copyright registration is proof of authorship and of when the work existed. In Brazil it is done at the Copyright Office of the National Library (Escritório de Direitos Autorais da Biblioteca Nacional). It is optional and declaratory: it serves to prove the work was yours on that date.
Work filing is what allows Ecad to identify a performance and pay for it. It is done with a collective management society (the Brazilian equivalent of a PRO), which can be Abramus, UBC, Sicam, Socinpro, Amar, Assim or Sbacem, or by the publisher itself. You need it to get paid.
Abramus itself says explicitly that filing a work with the society is not a protective registration. They are separate things, and you need both.
The ISWC comes afterwards: it is generated from the filing. You don’t ask for an ISWC: you file the work correctly and the code arrives.
How Yawh handles it
A song published on Yawh gets a timestamp at upload and is registered with the Copyright Office. Because we are a licensed publisher, we file the work with the society on your behalf, so you don’t need to join one or learn the process. When the ISWC comes back, it is linked to the work and shows up on your dashboard.
If your song already has an ISWC, even better: we validate the filing, fix the metadata and take over the administration from then on.