International Standard Music Number

A draft ISMN structure and application was presented at the 1987 IAML conference in Amsterdam, then after further discussions at the 1989 IAML conference in Oxford it was decided that the UK, French and German branches should, through their respective national standards bodies (BSI, AFNOR and DIN) file ISMN as an ISO work project.

After meetings in Ottawa and Paris in 1993, the draft was finalized and published by ISO.

From 1 January 2008, the ISMN was defined as a thirteen digit identifier beginning 979-0 where the zero replaced M in the old-style number.

[3] The current format comprises four blocks: the prefix 979-0 reserved for ISMNs — at some future date they are expected to occupy the remainder of the 979 space which is shared with ISBNs, a block to identify the publisher, another to identify the item and one final check digit.

For instance, for the item with ISMN beginning 979-0-060-11561: As 85 mod 10 = 5, the check digit is 10 − 5 = 5 and the full number is 979-0-060-11561-5.