Inspiring

Question

ISMN vs ISBN

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 5, 2022
4 replies
2341 views

Dear all,

this may not directly belong to the InDesign forum but I have not found a dedicated publishers forum that may answer my quandary (if you know one, please direct me there!)

Since I will soon upgrade my publications from digital only to digital and print, I am inquiring about ISMN and ISBN. The music engraving community is discordant on their utility but, most of all, on their cost. Here in Italy the ISMN costs up to EUR 5,00 each, while in Romania, Portugal, and the USA, they seem free to obtain from the respective National Libraries.

Do you know if there is a general and legal way of obtaining them for free?

What is your general opinion on them? If you publish, or work in publishing, do you use them?

A distributor from the UK refused to distribute my scores if they have the ISMN instead of the ISBN. I found that strange...

Thank you for your input.

J

jessica_6063

Participant

Inelsore,

Like you, I publish mostly music scores -- some method books, and occasionally monographs on music. You may find this site helpful:

https://www.ismn-international.org/faq

I do get ismn's for our scores. They are useful if you would like your publications to be found in libraries, and there are advantages to the smaller, music-specific listing system.

J E L

Community Expert

Hi @Inélsòre, in addition to the other good information you have already, I'm wondering what your exact format and content is going to be? Audio books are supported by ISBN, but that doesn't extend to a musical score. In looking through my Bowker account, this page https://www.myidentifiers.com/faq/eligibility-chart lists types of publications that are and are not supported with ISBN.

Digital customized publications: No, unless a publisher's internal assignment is necessary for back office systems, such as finance or inventory control.

Sheet music: No, sheet music does not get ISBNs. The ISMN is the appropriate standard for sheet music, which doesn't have any binding. ISBNs are assigned to books of printed music.

I've issued countless ISBNs, but never for a musical score by itself. Maybe if you assembled the scores into a book format with other narrative text? ISBN lets you select up to two genres, with one being required, and MUSIC is a category, but I think this is meant to be topical.

According to the ISMN Users' Manual (2016), the following are not to be given ISMNs:
• books on music except when they contain examples of notated music
• stand-alone sound or video recordings (including recordings available on
computer media)
• periodicals and series as a whole, as distinct from individual volumes in series

As James mentioned, there are not any truly free ISBNs. I do not recommend using the print-on-demand-type publishers' “free” ISBNs, since they will then own publisher-name rights to your publication. If you purchase your ISBNs directly through Bowker or an agent, you can create any custom imprint name you like. Be sure you are prepared with all the details of your publication before you issue any identifiers. Also, I've had clients outside the US experience problems setting up individual Bowker accounts, but do try. Hope this is all helpful!

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you JEL

My publications are books made up of a preface, a sheet music full score, and critical end-notes. Then as many inserts as the number of parts are added to the publication. If this is an EPUB they will be all together, otherwise they will be on separately stapled papers.

The music publishers I work with as an engraver all use ISMN for their publications, so I believe I am on the right track here. I have contacted the Italian ISMN agency and purchased my first 10 codes from them. Next step is 100 codes, but they only give 10 to begin with anyway, and thus the investment is significantly higher.

I am just in the dawning days of this process, it's both exciting and scary, but I'm sure mistakes will be the best teachers!

J E L

Community Expert

Ah, makes sense, @Inélsòre, and I was still composing my response while you had already explained some of this in another reply post. It is certainly a learning experience! And congratulations on getting your publications underway. Please let us know if we can offer any other help or insights.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

First, I am utterly unsurprised that you haven't been able to find a worthwhile publishing forum. The topic does not seem to attract... a useful participant base. Enough said.

(Complete side thought: a publishing-focused forum would be a good addition here, but I'm afraid that like most it would quickly get overrun by novices and amateurs with insoluable issues.)

I don't know much about ISBNs other than from a US-centric approach. Typically, you have to buy one (or its equivalent) from the country of publication and copyright registration. In the US, nearly all ISBNs are handled by Bowker, a private company. Single numbers are available; blocks of 10 and 50 and so forth are available at significant discounts.

You pretty much have to have an ISBN to sell outside a limited vendor like Amazon.

You can get free ISBNs from some publishing vendors, including Amazon and Ingram, but those numbers can only be used for copies sold through that vendor. That is, you can't get a free Amazon/KDP ISBN and use it to sell copies you have printed elsewhere, or on Ingram, or on iBooks, etc. It can get confusing when the same book has multiple ISBNs from different printer/distributors.

I don't know what ISMNs are; I've never heard of them. I'd bet that the UK vendor is in the mainstream when preferring the more universal ISBN, which can be applied to anything that's much like a printed book, regardless of content or niche.

Hope that provides some clarity. Any further questions?

I

InélsòreAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks James!

ISMN stands for International Standard Music Number and is a branch of ISBN that was created to manage specifically music publications (but not books on music... ahah!, just scores & some other things).

I have bought 10 codes to get started but I found ridiculous that I have to use two different codes for the printed and for the digital version. Also ... "one has to ..." but so many publications just don't have ISBN/ISMN and no one seems to have persecuted them ...

Ingram is indeed the distributor that refused the ISMN. Sadly, I need to see how this goes before investing in the more expensive ISBN (in Italy they charge you a "program participation fee" in addition to the codes). Also, their trim size is pretty small so impractical for music (A4 and Letter is the maximum).

@Eugene Tyson mentioned barcodes: I think that, once I have the ISMN number, I can create one myself in InDesign, since they charge 13 EUR to create a barcode ... maybe I should offer that as a service! Sounds profitable!

My next steps are to get the proof from the printer—I'm going for Print-on-Demand because I have no storage facility nor I want to use the infamous Italian postage system—then set up the web-store to handle international purchases and shipping. It will take a lot of care, especially for VAT handling.