An IPI number identifies a person or a company in the worldwide database that collecting societies share. It is how a song's credits point at an actual human rather than at a name eleven other people also use.
Where it comes from
The society issues it when a writer or publisher joins: Buma/Stemra, PRS, GEMA, SACEM. The number stays with that person for life, across societies and across countries, so joining a society in another country later does not produce a second one.
What it looks like
Nine or eleven digits, written without spaces. It is sometimes called a CAE number, which is the older name for the same thing.
Where it is used
- Registering a work, where each writer is listed with an IPI and a percentage share.
- Publishing contracts.
- Label copy and delivery sheets sent to a distributor.
- Split sheets agreed in the studio.
Keep it with the artist's business records and hand it to anyone registering a co-write. A registration filed with a name and no IPI can attach to the wrong writer, and unpicking that takes months.