Glossary · Publishing
CISAC
CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, is the global umbrella body for collection societies. Founded in 1926 and based in France, it sets the standards and reciprocal frameworks that let royalties move between countries.
CISAC is the reason a song written in Hawaii can generate money when it is played on the radio in Finland. Founded in 1926 and headquartered in France, CISAC is the international confederation that member collection societies belong to — ASCAP, BMI and SESAC in the United States, PRS for Music in the United Kingdom, GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, JASRAC in Japan and many more.
What CISAC actually provides is infrastructure and standards rather than money. It administers the identifier systems the whole royalty chain depends on: the IPI number that identifies you as an interested party, and the ISWC that identifies a composition internationally. It maintains the frameworks under which societies sign reciprocal representation agreements, so that a work registered with BMI can be recognised and licensed by a society in another territory.
For an independent artist, CISAC is invisible until something goes wrong with data. Your IPI number is a CISAC-system identifier, and it is what a foreign society uses to confirm that the "B. Watson" in a usage report is the same person BMI knows. Getting your IPI onto your registrations at your PRO, at The MLC and with any administrator is the single most useful thing you can do to make international matching work.
The misunderstanding: CISAC does not collect or pay royalties and you cannot join it. It has no membership for individual writers. If a service implies it will "register you with CISAC," treat that as marketing language for registering you with CISAC-member societies.
Written by an artist trying to make foreign royalties show up — not a legal or industry authority.
Related terms
- Sub-publisherA sub-publisher is a publishing company that represents another publisher's catalogue in a specific foreign territory…
- PRO (performing rights organization)A performing rights organization licenses the public performance of musical compositions and collects performance royalties for…
- IPI / CAE numberAn IPI number, formerly called a CAE number, is a unique identifier assigned to a songwriter, composer or publisher within the…
- ISWCAn ISWC, International Standard Musical Work Code, is a unique identifier for a musical composition, formatted as T followed by…
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
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