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Paste the barcode
Spaces and dashes come out on the way in. Twelve digits are read as a UPC-A and thirteen as an EAN-13, the check digit is recalculated, and anything else gets told exactly how many digits it has.
Paste a release barcode and get the album it belongs to on Spotify, with the check digit worked out on the way. Paste a Spotify album link instead and get its UPC back.
Looking it up on Spotify.
No release on Spotify carries this barcode. Spotify is a store rather than the GS1 registry, so a barcode used on a physical release or one that never reached streaming can still come back empty here.
A barcode that adds up is well formed, which is not the same as assigned to you. Your own release barcodes live in your dashboard, as our codes guide explains.
The digit checks run entirely in your browser, check digit maths included. The lookup is the one part that needs Spotify, and the barcode or the album id is all that goes to our server. Nothing is stored either way.
Spaces and dashes come out on the way in. Twelve digits are read as a UPC-A and thirteen as an EAN-13, the check digit is recalculated, and anything else gets told exactly how many digits it has.
A share link, a spotify: URI or a bare album id all work. The tool reads the id, asks for that release and hands back the UPC Spotify holds for it, ready to copy.
A well formed barcode gets looked up. If a release on Spotify carries it, you get the artwork, the artists and the release date, with a link to open it.
A UPC is a Universal Product Code, twelve digits long, and an EAN is the European Article Number, thirteen. They are the same numbering system: a UPC-A is simply an EAN-13 with a leading zero, which is why one check digit calculation covers both and why stores worldwide accept either. Every release you put out, from a one track single to a box set, is a product with one of these numbers attached, and it identifies the release rather than any of the recordings inside it.
The numbers come from GS1, the organization that runs the barcode standard. GS1 issues a company prefix to a business, that business assigns the item numbers that follow, and the final digit is calculated from the others so a scanner can catch a misread. The first three digits name the GS1 member organization that issued the prefix, which is why a barcode often looks like it points at a country. It points at the issuing office, not at where anything was made or recorded. Most artists never buy a prefix, because a distributor assigns the barcode as part of delivering the release.
The check digit is the part worth knowing about. It is arithmetic over the first twelve digits, so a single mistyped digit almost always fails it and so does a pair of adjacent digits swapped around. That makes this page a real proofread of a number somebody read to you over the phone or copied out of a spreadsheet. What it cannot tell you is who owns the number: the maths works for any well formed barcode, assigned or not.
The lookup runs in both directions, which is the useful part when you only hold half the picture. A barcode resolves to the release that carries it, so you can confirm you are looking at the right record before it goes on a delivery sheet. A release that is already live resolves back to its UPC, so you can read the barcode off a Spotify page without asking anyone. One caveat on both directions: this reads Spotify, so a barcode used on a physical product that never reached streaming comes back empty.
A UPC is a twelve digit barcode number, an EAN is the thirteen digit international form, and they are the same system. Adding a leading zero to a UPC-A gives you the EAN-13 for the same product. In music both terms get used for the number printed on a release and stored against it at every store.
Yes. Stores identify a release by its barcode even when nothing physical is ever pressed, so a digital single needs one exactly as an album does. If you deliver through a distributor, the barcode is assigned for you and shows in your dashboard. Buying a GS1 prefix yourself only makes sense once you are numbering a catalog.
Copy the album's share link, switch this tool to the Spotify link mode and paste it in. The UPC comes back with a copy button, along with the artwork and release details. If it is the URI or the raw id you need rather than the barcode, our Spotify URI finder handles that side.
It means the number as typed cannot be a real barcode. The last digit is calculated from the twelve before it, so one wrong digit or two swapped digits will not add up. The fix is almost always to copy the number again from the source rather than to change a digit and retry. A code that comes out at eleven or fourteen digits is usually the same story: a digit dropped in a copy, or a stray character pulled in with it.
No. The check digit proves the number is well formed, nothing more. The lookup goes further by finding a real release that carries it, but Spotify is a store rather than the GS1 registry, so a barcode assigned to a physical product or to a release that never reached streaming comes back with nothing. Your own assigned barcodes live in your distributor dashboard.
The UPC identifies the release as a product, the ISRC identifies each recording inside it. A five track EP has one UPC and five ISRCs. Our ISRC checker does the same job as this page for the recording half, including decoding what each part of the code means.
Different store, different identifiers. Apple does not publish the barcode on its web pages, so a music.apple.com link cannot be read for one here. Our Apple Music artist ID finder covers the identifier Apple's own forms do ask for, which is the numeric artist id.
The digit checks are pure arithmetic and never leave your browser. The lookup needs Spotify, and the only thing sent to our server is the barcode itself, or the album id pulled out of a link. No names, no files, no account, and nothing stored on either side.
Yes. Free to use, no account, no caps, and no Spotify login involved. It is a utility we build for artists and labels preparing releases.
Unchained assigns the barcode for every release and the ISRC for every track, and both sit in your dashboard from the moment you deliver. Plus royalty splits, playlist pitching and real support when something needs fixing.