ISMN (International Standard Music Number)

Description of ISMN (International Standard Music Number)

The ISMN (Internationally Standard Music Number) is used for marking printed musical publications. It was conceived in 1993 and today it is applied in in 48 regions and countries.

The construction of an ISMN:
An ISMN has always 10 digits. It is built up as follows:

• The ISMN begins with the Prefix M which marks the number as an ISMN. This prefix is set automatically by ActiveBarcode. You do not enter it.
• The following block marks the publishing company. This ID can be between 3 and 7 digits long.
• The product-ID follows. This ID is between 1 and 5 digits long. Both blocks of the publishing company and the product ID are always 8 digits together. When the publishers ID is 3 digits long, the product ID will always have 5 digits.
• The last place of the ISMN is the check digit. The check digit is computed according to Modulo 10. On this occasion, the prefix M is replaced with the value of 3 for the calculation of the check digit.

An ISMN barcode is created using the EAN-13 symbology with a special prefix. The ISMN prefix M will be encoded as zero. So the ISMN is a special form of the EAN-13 code.

More information on the ISMN:
The International I S M N Agency

 

Technical data

Valid characters:	1234567890
Length:	10
Check digit:	Calculated according to Modulo 10 ActiveBarcode calculates the check digit for you automatically
Type#:	ISMN - #41 - CODEISMN