Work Dashboards
CONNECT tracks music publishing data on Work Dashboards. These display metadata and aggregated performance data for musical works, or the underlying creative compositions that are licensed to create musical recordings.
Work Dashboards are linked to Recording Dashboards, but they are not nested within the Song Dashboard category. Works are a unique entity type within CONNECT.
Work
Musical work or work refers to a unique musical composition consisting of words, melody and essential creative characteristics. Works can be licensed via publishing rights, which are separate from ownership and distribution rights.
ISWC
ISWC stands for International Standard Musical Work Code. It's an external ID used to identify a musical work. ISWCs are assigned and managed by CISAC, an international organization representing authors and composers. Read more here.
Creator
All Works are attributed to one or more Creators: the composers, producers, arrangers or translators behind a musical and/or lyrical composition. Creators are identified by IPI codes.
What’s the difference between a song and a work?
Song can refer to a few different concepts (a recording, a track, a musical composition, etc). But in CONNECT, “song” is not a generic term. A Song is a musical entity made up of grouped Recordings.
Work refers to a musical work: a registered composition identified by an ISWC code. Works are only “songs” in a general sense (as in, “I wrote a song and registered it with ASCAP in order to receive publishing royalties”). They do not map 1:1 with the Song category in our database.
Find Works in CONNECT
Work Dashboards can be accessed 1) via Search or 2) from a linked Dashboard.
Keyword searches can return Works as a category.
Perform an ID Search and enter an ISWC to return an exact match.
On a Song or Recording Dashboard, click MORE DETAILS > and open the WORKS tab to see all musical works linked to that recording based on ISWC-to-ISRC mapping.
We currently limit navigation to Works with over 1,000 linked recordings. You’ll be able to see ISWCs and creator information from the Works tab, but you won't be able to open the Work Dashboard.
Instead, you’ll get a pop-up "Work Unavailable" error message.
The Works tab on a Dashboard may display a “No Works available” message. This means that either 1) there are no ISWC-ISRC links in our database, or 2) linkage confidence scores are too low to show matches.
Work Details: Metadata and KPIs
Like other CONNECT Dashboards, Work Dashboards list metadata at the top, followed by KPI highlights. (Activity on a Work Dashboard is aggregated from all linked Recordings).
Creator roles appear as tags to the right of each credited name. CONNECT classifies most creators into the following categories:
Composer
The original author (i.e. songwriter) of a musical work: musical elements, lyrics or both. A composer may be responsible for any portion of a composition (i.e. a sample used in a new work).
Arranger
The modifier of musical elements in a pre-existing musical work. Re-arranged compositions may credit the original composer(s) alongside any arranger(s).
Translator
One who translates lyrics or other text into another language. Translated works generally credit the original composer(s) alongside any translator(s).
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Activity Over Time
Linked Recordings
Scroll to the bottom of a Works Dashboard to see all linked recordings. These can include alternate recordings by the original artist, covers, remixes, re-arrangements and more.
Export Work data
Use the kebab menu at the top right of Activity Over Time, Activity by Location or Recordings to export data in CSV or Excel format.
Work Dashboard FAQs
Where do you get Works data?
We track Works in CONNECT using ISWC codes. We receive ISWCs from CISAC and the Luminate France (formerly Quansic) database of music identifiers.
How are ISWCs assigned to Works?
ISWCs are issued by CISAC. Works must first be registered with performing rights organizations (PROs), such as ASCAP or BMI, which track publishing rights and facilitate royalty payments. PROs send registered musical works and Creator information to CISAC, which then assigns ISWCs and uses them to track global publishing activity. Read more here.
Can I register Works with Luminate? / Can I request an ISWC?
No. See above. ISWCs are assigned by CISAC once a composition has been registered with a performing rights organization. Luminate merely tracks ISWCs and links them with ISRCs.
Why are there multiple Works linked to a Recording?
A Work might be expected to have multiple associated Recordings. But some Recordings are also linked to more than one Work. That’s okay: Works may be registered as derivatives of an earlier composition, which means they get their own ISWC.
These include musical re-arrangements, lyric changes, remixes and other versions that alter a composition’s lyrics, melody or both. Derivatives often share the same title and some of the same Creators, but with additional Creators and roles. For instance, translations of a song into new languages need to be registered with new ISWCs in order for the translator(s) to be credited and paid.
There may also be duplicate ISWCs for a single Work or duplicate Creators with different IPIs in the CISAC database.
What does “Preferred” mean? / Why are there multiple “Preferred” ISWCs?
Short version: “Preferred” and “Archived” are CISAC terms for “active” and “inactive.”
Longer version: CISAC uses ‘Preferred” to indicate that an ISWC is currently active and approved for reference in their database. There can be multiple “preferred” ISWCs for a title with derivative works (see above). There may also be duplicate valid ISWCs (see above, again).
Preferred ISWCs in CONNECT have been registered, validated and approved by CISAC as the authoritative version of a musical composition. “Archived” indicates that an ISWC has been deprecated and/or merged with a preferred ISWC.
Where do you get Creator data? / How are IPIs assigned to Works?
Creator information comes to us from CISAC in the form of IPI codes attached to ISWCs in their database. CISAC gets IPIs from PROs and collective management organizations (CMOs). Read more here.
CONNECT simply displays Creator/IPI metadata as provided by CISAC for each ISWC entry.
Why is there more than one IPI for the same person?
IPIs are maintained by PROs and CMOs. It’s possible for several IPI records to exist for the same person based on alternate names, different roles or parallel registration from different organizations.
Are Creators mapped to Artists in CONNECT?
Not at this time. Creators are identified with IPIs; artists with ISNIs and other types of metadata. While some Creators are also musical artists in the CONNECT database, we don’t currently link IPIs to ISNIs.
Can I register or edit Creators with Luminate? / Can I request an IPI for an artist?
No. See above. IPIs are provided to CISAC by PROs and CMOs. We cannot create or overwrite them in our database.
What’s a “Score?” / How do you calculate confidence scores?
Works are displayed with linkage confidence scores of 70-100. (We hide Works with scores under 70 to maintain data quality). Scores are calculated based on proprietary logic that assesses CISAC and Luminate data.
A score of 90-100 represents a “perfect” or nearly-perfect match between an ISWC and ISRC based on all available metadata, with no partial or “fuzzy” matching for names and titles. Scores of 70-90 represent partial matching for titles, Creator names and Creator role assignments.
The Works tab says “No Works available.” Why?
See above. We hide Works with low (sub-70) confidence scores in order to maintain data integrity and ensure that only validated ISWC-ISRC links appear in CONNECT.
It can also mean that there simply aren’t any Works linked to a Recording in our dataset.
Why can’t I navigate to Work Dashboards with more than 1,000 recordings?
During the initial beta access period, a small group of Works with over 1,000 ISRC links will remain unavailable via the UI. This only applies to around 800 total Works. We will provide updated access information in the future.
Can I correct Works metadata in CONNECT?
No. We receive ISWCs and all associated Works metadata from external sources (i.e. CISAC). Any errors come from CISAC’s database or the PRO registration process. CISAC audits, corrects and refreshes the ISWC database regularly; when they do, we ingest the new data and update CONNECT accordingly.
How can publishers and rights holders resolve duplicate ISWCs or IPIs?
Ask the relevant registration agency (i.e. a PRO like ASCAP, BMI or JASRAC). These organizations are CISAC members and can make changes to the CISAC registration database. You may also contact CISAC directly to resolve Works data.
How often do you update Works data and ISWC-ISRC linking?
Every 1-2 weeks. We receive new data from CISAC weekly. Once we ingest the weekly file, it takes a few days to process changes and update our database.
Why don’t Work Dashboards show Airplay data?
Airplay is tracked at the Song level, not the Recording level. But Works are only linked to Recordings.
Can I see Works linked to Album (Release Group) Dashboards?
Not at this time. We may add Works mapping to Release Group/Release/Product Dashboards in the future.