Walravens Hartmut. ISMN Users’ Manual

5-th, revised edition. — International ISMN Agency, 2016. — 26 p. — ISBN 978-92-990051-5-6.The ISMN (International Standard Music Number) has been quite successful during the more than twenty years of its existence. Fifty-nine ISMN agencies, representing some more countries and regions are now active members of the system. If something is to be desired it would be more applications in the music business as we see them in the ISBN community. Music publishing and the use of sheet music do not compare so easily with the world of books — notated music addresses a select, music literate audience, and the historical structures are different in the major music countries. A certain globalisation is seen nowadays through the growth of Internet suppliers who offer large amounts of sheet music and thus bridge the gap between the traditional music countries and the music lovers worldwide. The ISMN would be an ideal identifier for the material on the Internet, especially as it is compatible with more specialised identification systems.
The last revision of the ISMN standard turned it into a 13-digit number and thus aligned it with the ISBN. This was well received by the users’ community and provided a firm basis for further good cooperation with ISBN International.
The present edition of the Manual offers mainly one major change — it speaks of registrants instead of publishers. The reason is that besides the commercial publishers in the music sector there is a large amount of music creators who disseminate their works in different media, and it is doubtful whether they would qualify as publishers in the traditional sense. At any rate, in some countries that have publishing laws they might not be regarded as publishers.
This version of the Manual does not enlarge on the subject of electronic forms of publishing and licensing. The reason is twofold: On one hand, the experience of the last years has shown that technical development moves very fast and what seems to require special treatment today may be forgotten one year later. On the other hand, and that is the main reason — the rules for assigning ISMN are the same for notated music and are not depending on the product form. Considering the wide use of electronic dissemination of notated music the assignment of ISMN to such products is strongly encouraged.
Users' Manuals are not static — they are constantly in a process of revision in order to make them as useful as possible and adapt them to the current needs. Therefore also the present edition is by no means the definitive one — the most up-to-date version will be found on the website of the International ISMN Agency.