UPC or EAN

UPC or EAN

An UPC or EAN is a Universal Product Code or International Article Number (was European originally, hence the “E”). This identifies a product for retail sale, and is often the number encoded in a barcode font. Traditionally, barcodes were different in different regions, and whilst this has been standardized, it is still at the discretion of the releasing company. For example, exactly the same release in the US and Australia may or may not have a different UPC, depending on the processes in place by the releasing entity. David Bowie’s Blackstar album has 6 different UPC’s for exactly the same release. This is based on the different barcodes for different formats (Vinyl, CD, Digital, etc.)

    • Related Articles

    • Release

      A Release is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. An Album, Single, Compilation, EP or any other grouping can be a release. Different versions of the same ...

    • Release version

      A release version is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. Different versions of the same album for different territories may be identified as different ...

    • Version

      A release version is a particular grouping of one or many recordings. It's the introduction of a particular group of recordings of work(s) to a market. Different versions of the same album for different territories may be identified as different ...