ISRC and UPC Codes for Cover Songs: What to Sort Out Before Release Day

Every track that streams on Spotify, Apple Music, or any of the other 200+ platforms out there is being tracked behind the scenes by two small strings of characters: an ISRC and a UPC. For an original song, artists sometimes get away with a vague understanding of what these codes do. For a cover song, getting them right matters a little more, because a cover already has two layers of rights attached to it — the composition (owned by the original songwriter) and your new sound recording (owned by you). The codes are what keep those two things straight once your release starts generating streams and royalties.

Here’s what each code actually does, who’s responsible for assigning them, and how this fits into the rest of your cover song release checklist.

What an ISRC Code Actually Identifies

ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. It’s a 12-character code (something like US-ABC-26-12345) that identifies one specific recording — not the song itself, but your particular performance of it. This distinction is the whole point when it comes to covers.

If you release a cover of a well-known song, the ISRC on your track is completely separate from the ISRC on the original artist’s recording, even though the underlying composition is identical. Streaming platforms use the ISRC to route performance data and mechanical royalties to the correct recording owner — you, as the performer — while a separate licensing mechanism handles what’s owed to the original songwriter for the composition. Mixing these up, or releasing without a valid ISRC at all, is one of the more common reasons cover royalties get misreported or delayed.

A few practical points worth knowing:

Each individual recording needs its own ISRC — a single and its remix are two different recordings, so two different codes.
ISRCs are permanent and tied to that specific recording forever, even if you switch distributors down the line.
You typically don’t need to buy or register these yourself as an independent artist releasing through a distributor — a reputable distributor like Globex Music assigns one automatically as part of your release, at no extra cost on top of the standard $1 per-release price.

What a UPC Code Does Differently

UPC (Universal Product Code) works at a different level. Where the ISRC identifies the recording, the UPC identifies the release as a product — the single, EP, or album as a whole. If you release a cover as a standalone single, the UPC represents that single. If you later bundle three covers into an EP, that EP gets its own UPC, separate from the UPCs any of those tracks may have had as standalone singles.

Retailers and streaming platforms use the UPC the same way a barcode is used in a physical store: to catalog the product, track sales and streaming activity at the release level, and avoid duplicate or conflicting listings. Without one, a platform has no reliable way to list your release at all.

Why This Matters More for Covers Than Originals

With an original song, the ISRC and UPC are really the only identifiers doing any work — there’s no separate composition owner to account for. With a cover, you’ve got three things running in parallel that all need to line up correctly from day one:

The ISRC — identifies your specific recording of the cover.
The UPC — identifies the release (single/EP) that recording belongs to.
The mechanical license — the legal permission that allows you to distribute a recording of someone else’s composition in the first place, and that routes composition royalties back to the original songwriter.

If any one of these is missing or mismatched, the parts that do exist won’t function properly. A perfectly valid ISRC attached to a cover with no mechanical license doesn’t protect you legally — platforms can still pull the track. And a licensed cover with no ISRC or UPC simply can’t be distributed, because there’s no way to catalog or track it.

Who Handles What: A Practical Breakdown

Task	Who typically handles it	Cost with Globex Music
Assigning an ISRC	Your distributor, automatically	Included in the $1 release price
Assigning a UPC	Your distributor, automatically	Included in the $1 release price
Securing mechanical license	Distributor (if it offers automatic licensing) or a separate licensing service	Included automatically — no extra step

This is where the per-release pricing model makes a real difference for cover artists specifically. DistroKid charges $44.99/year regardless of how many covers you release that year, but doesn’t include cover licensing in that fee — you handle mechanical licensing separately. TuneCore’s base plan runs $24.99/year and adds per-cover licensing fees plus a 20% commission on social platform income. CD Baby charges $9.95 per single up front and then keeps a 9% royalty commission on that release permanently, for as long as it earns.

Globex Music bundles the ISRC, the UPC, and the mechanical license into a single $1 per-release price, with no annual fee sitting on top and no long-term commission attached to the release afterward. For an artist releasing four or five covers a year, that difference compounds fast — you’re not paying a recurring platform fee just to keep codes and licensing active on tracks you already released.

A Quick Pre-Release Checklist

Before you hit submit on a cover song release, it’s worth confirming these four things are actually in place rather than assumed:

Your distributor is assigning a fresh ISRC to this specific recording, not reusing one from a prior version.
A UPC is generated for the release itself, matching however you’re packaging it (single vs. EP).
Mechanical licensing for the cover is confirmed and included — not a separate step you still need to arrange with a third party.
Your metadata (song title, original songwriter credit, «cover» designation where required) matches across the ISRC, UPC, and license paperwork, so nothing gets flagged during moderation.

Moderation review times vary by distributor, but one advantage of having ISRC, UPC, and licensing bundled into one submission flow is that there’s less back-and-forth — nothing gets held up because a code wasn’t generated or a license wasn’t attached. With Globex Music, that bundled process is part of why reviews move quickly and payouts start from as little as $10 once your cover starts earning across those 200+ platforms.

The Bottom Line

ISRC and UPC codes aren’t paperwork you need to chase down yourself — but understanding what they do helps you spot a distributor that’s actually handling your cover song correctly versus one that’s leaving gaps for you to fill in later. For covers specifically, the safest setup is one where the recording code, the product code, and the mechanical license are generated together, in the same submission, for one flat price — so nothing is left half-finished by the time your track goes live.