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Label codes

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Label Codes are four or five digit codes assigned by the German Performing Rights Society GVL, prefixed by LC. The codes are intended to distinctly identify different record labels in order to take radio airplay into account of the right labels. It is important to note that the codes are unique to the label and not the release, and that they should not be confused with Catalog numbers. Label codes are typically found on the back of the release and/or on the media itself.

The current label code format consists of five digits, however, you may find four-digit codes on older releases which were issued under the previous system. All codes which were previously four digits have been extended to five digits by adding a preceding zero. For example, you may find either LC 0199 or LC 00199 on releases issued by Epic Records.

Example

The label code for City Slang is LC 06853:

It is also important to note that label codes can be lent to, or rented by other labels. Many labels from outside Germany don't have a label code and receive the code from parent-, sub- or partner-labels, otherwise affiliated labels or simply from labels which rent out the code to those labels. Not every German label owns a code and even labels with a code sometimes carry the code of a parent or partner label. This happens especially if the small label doesn't get the required amount of airplay minutes per year, to benefit from the annual payout by the GVL. The airplay minutes are gathered by the bigger label in order to reach higher payouts. This way it could happen that a label has more than two or three label codes on different releases, but never more than one code on one release.

If a label is not registered with GVL, i.e. it doesn't have its own label code, but uses the label code of another label (e.g. Axiom using Island Records' LC 00407), the correct entry is:
EU Label Code LC 00407 [Island Records]
If a label is registered with GVL, i.e. it has its own label code, but also uses the label code of another label (e.g. I Love This Sound, LC 22906, also using Dance Network's LC 00708), the correct entry is:
EU Label Code LC 22906, LC 00708 [Dance Network]