The ISMN - International Standard Music Number - is the international number that unambiguously identifies notated music publications whether available for sale, hire, free distribution or for copyright purposes..
It is used to rationalize processing and handling of notated music publications and their respective bibliographic data: for publishing houses, music trade and libraries.
The numerical code consists of 13 digits structured into 5 elements, some of which may vary in length. It is always preceded by the acronym ISMN.
For example: 979-0-2306-7118-7
979-0: comprised of the EAN prefix 979 and a 0 (zero) digit that identifies publications with an ISMN, which distinguishes them from other standardized numbers such as an ISBN.
2306: publisher ID which identifies the music publisher; its length is variable. Publishers with a large output are assigned shorter numbers than those publishing less who, on the other hand, will have longer numbers. The quantity of digits is related to the following element.
7118:identifies separately available items or publications of a single work. This number is assigned by the publishers themselves.
7: check digit verifying the number is correct; it is calculated mathematically.
For easier reading, the five elements are separated by hyphens. The resulting 13-figure number is the same as an EAN-13, the number corresponding to barcodes.
The ISO 10957:2009 standard defines the basic rules for the ISMN system.
Please note:
Before January 1, 2008, an ISMN consisted of 10 digits divided into 4 elements.
Example: M-2306-7118-7
M: the letter that distinguished an ISMN from other standardized numbers; the M stood for "music".
2306: publisher ID identifying the music publisher; its length is variable. The quantity of digits is related to the following element.
7118: identifies separately available items or publications of a single work.
7: check digit verifying the number is correct; it is calculated mathematically.
The ISMN-10 was regulated by the ISO 10957:1993 standard which was revised to expand the numerical code to 13 digits.
