Music Rights Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up across Credits.fm — PROs and their global coordinator (CISAC), the five music identifiers (ISRC, ISWC, IPI, ISNI, UPC), royalty types (mechanical, performance, sync, neighboring), license types (blanket, sync, work-for-hire), and the publisher-side mechanics (writer’s share, publisher’s share, sub-publisher, administrator).

Administrator (admin publisher): A publisher that collects royalties on behalf of a copyright owner, usually for a fixed administration fee, without taking an ownership stake. Different from a co-publishing or buy-out deal.
Apple Music track ID: A numeric ID inside Apple Music’s catalog. Like Spotify URIs, it resolves to a specific recording — which has an ISRC that you can look up via Credits.fm.
Arranger: A contributor who adapts an existing composition — usually for a different instrumentation or genre — without writing new core melody or lyrics. PRO role code “AR”.
ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. One of the three major U.S. PROs alongside BMI and SESAC.
Blanket license: A license that lets a business use any work in a licensor’s catalog for a flat fee, instead of clearing each song individually. The MLC issues a blanket mechanical license to streaming services; PROs issue blanket performance licenses to venues and broadcasters.
BMI: Broadcast Music, Inc. One of the three major U.S. PROs alongside ASCAP and SESAC.
CAE number: The predecessor of the IPI number (Compositeur, Auteur, Editeur). Renamed when the IPI system replaced CAE, but the numbers are identical and older registries still label them CAE/IPI.
CISAC: The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. The global umbrella that coordinates the 200+ PROs worldwide and maintains the IPI and ISWC databases.
Composer: A songwriter credited with writing the music (melody and harmony) of a composition. In PRO data, “Composer” (C) is distinct from “Author” (A, the lyricist) and “Arranger” (AR).
Controlled composition: A song co-written or owned in whole or in part by the recording artist. Most major-label recording contracts apply a reduced mechanical rate to controlled compositions.
IPI (Interested Parties Information)a.k.a. cae, cae number: A unique 11-digit identifier assigned to songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers by their PRO. Formerly known as a CAE number. Managed by SUISA on behalf of CISAC.
ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier): A 16-digit ISO 27729 identifier for the public identity of a creative contributor across all industries (music, books, film, TV). The same person can hold an ISNI and an IPI.
ISRC (International Standard Recording Code): A 12-character ISO 3901 identifier that uniquely tags a specific sound recording. Every track on streaming platforms has one. Format: country (2) + registrant (3) + year (2) + designation (5).
ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code): An ISO 15707 identifier managed by CISAC that uniquely tags a musical composition (the song itself, distinct from any recording). One ISWC, many ISRCs.
Lyricist (Author): A songwriter credited with writing the words of a composition. In PRO data, the role is typically marked “A” for Author.
Master (master recording): A specific sound recording — the audio file or tape. Usually owned by the label or the artist. Distinct from the underlying composition (work), which is owned by songwriters/publishers.
Mechanical royalty: A royalty paid to songwriters and publishers when a recording is reproduced — physically (a pressed CD or vinyl) or digitally (an interactive stream, download, or copy). The U.S. statutory mechanical rate is set by the Copyright Royalty Board.
MLC Song Code: A unique code the MLC assigns to each composition in its database (also called MMOA ID in some legacy contexts). Distinct from the ISWC, though the two refer to the same underlying work.
Music Modernization Act (MMA / MMOA): The 2018 U.S. law that overhauled mechanical licensing for streaming, created the MLC, and replaced the old song-by-song NOI system with a single blanket license.
MusicBrainz: A community-maintained, CC0-licensed open music encyclopedia. Source of recording↔work links, artist metadata, ISRCs, ISWCs, and the canonical recording/work/release graph.
Neighboring rights: Rights belonging to performers and recording-rights owners (as opposed to songwriters). In the U.S., these are collected by SoundExchange for non-interactive digital performances.
oEmbed: An open standard for embedding content from one site inside another. Credits.fm exposes oEmbed endpoints (e.g. /api/oembed?url=...) so social platforms can unfurl rich previews of identifier pages.
Performance royalty: A royalty paid to songwriters and publishers when a work is publicly performed — on radio, TV, in venues, or streamed. Collected by PROs and distributed via IPI.
PRO (Performing Rights Organization)a.k.a. performing rights organization: A society that licenses public performances of musical works and collects performance royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers. Major PROs include ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC (US); SOCAN (Canada); PRS (UK); GEMA (Germany); SACEM (France); and JASRAC (Japan).
Publisher’s share: The portion of composition royalties that goes to the music publisher (typically 50%). Co-existing with the writer’s share to make up the full songwriter-side income.
SESAC: A U.S. PRO (originally Society of European Stage Authors and Composers; now just SESAC). Smaller and invite-only compared to ASCAP and BMI.
SoundExchange: The U.S. non-profit that collects and distributes neighboring-rights royalties for non-interactive digital performances (Internet radio, SiriusXM, etc.) on behalf of performers and recording owners.
Spotify URI: A unique identifier inside Spotify’s catalog (e.g. spotify:track:4u7EnebtmKWzUH433cf5Qv). Resolves to one specific track, which itself has one ISRC. Paste a Spotify URL into Credits.fm to look up its ISRC.
Sub-publisher: A publisher in a foreign territory that administers a work on behalf of the original publisher in that territory. The original publisher and sub-publisher split collected royalties.
SUISA: The Swiss PRO. SUISA hosts and maintains the global IPI database on behalf of CISAC, which is why IPI lookups so often reference SUISA.
Sync (synchronization license)a.k.a. synchronization, sync license: A license to combine a musical work with visual media — film, TV, ads, video games, social. Sync licenses are negotiated directly with publishers (for the composition) and labels (for the recording).
The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective)a.k.a. mechanical licensing collective: The U.S. nonprofit designated by the Music Modernization Act to administer the blanket mechanical license for streaming services. The MLC collects mechanical royalties from DSPs and distributes them to songwriters and publishers.
UPC (Universal Product Code)a.k.a. ean, gtin, barcode: A 12-digit GS1 barcode that uniquely identifies a music release (album, EP, single) for retail. Closely related: 13-digit EAN and 14-digit GTIN-14. Every release on a streaming service has a UPC.
Work-for-hire: A contractual arrangement in which a song or recording is owned by the commissioning party (label, publisher, employer) rather than the creator. Common for jingles, library music, and certain in-house publishing deals.
Writer’s share: The portion of composition royalties that goes to the songwriter (typically 50%). The other half, the publisher’s share, goes to the publisher. The two halves together make up the full songwriter income.