Does the work have to be protected by copyright before receiving an ISWC?
No. ISWC’s are allocated regardless of copyright status. Agencies may ‘adopt’ authors from the “public domain”, according to their local laws, and allocate ISWC numbers to their works. This is generally done for reasons of national interest. For example, the ‘traditional’ folk repertoire, works in the public domain whose authors are unknown, can be numbered by an authorized national agency.
