"Country" refers to the country of origin (the market) of the
release. Discovering the country can be very easy, or quite obscure.
For small labels, they will usually be based in, and release in, the
same country. Larger labels or labels with licensing deals overseas are
harder, but the country should always be the place the release was sold
and distributed in. For Imports, the country they are imported from is
the country of release.
The country is NOT where the release was manufactured. A US
label can release licensed recordings in Germany & Netherlands
(perhaps manufactured in Austria). If the release is on more than one
label, please list the country of the first label you listed in the
Label section. Please use the notes field for all information that
cannot be handled by the current form, or for any other questions
regarding the country field.
Smaller label releases should have matching country designations on all releases, or an explanation why not.
Country Codes
If you are having trouble determining the country in which a release
was marketed, the following list of initials for the organizations of
composers, songwriters, publishers, and other administrators of
copyright, mechanical rights, performance rights, etc. can be of some
help.
Please note that this information is not definitive; e.g. the
initials "BMI" appearing on a release are an indicator that the release
is somewhat more likely than not to originate in the USA. However it is
still possible that the item was manufactured for release in some other
market, or that BMI is administering royalty collection and payment on
behalf of affiliated organizations in other countries, etc., so at
best, the info is only a clue, a piece in the puzzle -- not the final
word.
ACAM = Costa Rica
ACDAM = Cuba
ACUM = Israel
AEPI = Greece
AGADU = Uruguay
AKKA/LAA = Latvia
AKM = Austria
ALBAUTOR = Albania
AMCOS = Australia, New Zealand
APA = Paraguay
APDASPAC = Peru
APDAYC = Peru
APRA = Australia
ARTISJUS = Hungary
ASCAP = USA
ASAMI = South Africa (old)
AUSTROMECHANA = Austria
BIEM = international
BMI = USA
BUMA = Netherlands
CASH = Hong Kong
CEDAR = Netherlands
CISAC = international
CMRRA = Canada
COTT = Trinidad, Tobago
EAU = Estonia
FCA = Fiji
FILSCAP = Philippines
GEMA = Germany
GESAC = Europe
GESAP = Georgia
GRAMO = Norway
GVL = Germany
HDS = Croatia
HFA = USA
IMRO = Ireland
IPRS = India
JASRAC = Japan
KCI = Indonesia
KODA = Denmark
KOMCA = South Korea
LATGA-A = Lithuania
MACP = Malaysia
MCPS = UK
MCSC = China
MCSK = Kenya
MESAM = Turkey
MUSICAUTOR = Bulgaria
MUST = Taiwan
NCB = Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia - also written as "n©b"
OSA = Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia)
PAMRA = UK
PPL = UK
PRS = UK
RAO = Russian Federation
RISA = South Africa (new)
SABAM = Belgium
SACEM = France
SACEM Luxembourg = Luxembourg
SACM = Mexico
SACVEN = Venezuela
SADAIC = Argentina
SAMI = Sweden
SAMRO = South Africa
SAYCO = Colombia
SAZAS = Slovakia (former Czechoslovakia)
SBACEM = Brazil
SCD = Chile
SDRM = France
SENA = Netherlands
SESAC = USA
SGA = Guinea-Bissau
SGAE = Spain
SIAE = Italy, The Vatican, San Marino
SOCAN = Canada
SODRAC = Canada
SOKOJ = Serbia, Montenegro (former Yugoslavia)
SOZA = Slovakia (former Czechoslovakia)
SPA = Portugal
STEF = Iceland
STEMRA = Netherlands
STIM = Sweden
SUISA = Switzerland, Liechtenstein
TEOSTO = Finland
TONO = Norway
UACRR = Ukraine
UBC = Brazil
UCMR-ADA = Romania
ZAIKS = Poland
