Guides

CWR 2.1 vs 2.2: what actually changed

CWR 2.2 is an additive revision of 2.1: no record types were removed and no layouts changed shape — fields were appended. That means a 2.1 reader can usually make sense of a 2.2 file's core, and it means the choice of which to deliver is mostly about what the receiving society accepts.

What 2.2 added

• Transmission header (HDR): explicit CWR version and revision fields, plus the name and version of the software that produced the file.
• Recording details (REC): recording title, version title, display artist, record label, ISRC validity, and a submitter recording identifier — the 2.1 REC stopped at the ISRC and media type.
• Work origin (ORN): V-ISAN and EIDR identifiers for audio-visual productions.
• Publisher links (PWR): an explicit publisher sequence reference, so a writer's link points unambiguously into one publisher chain.

Which should you deliver?

Whichever your recipient prefers — and that still varies. Most major societies accept both; some ingest pipelines remain happier with 2.1. When in doubt: 2.1 travels everywhere, 2.2 carries richer recording metadata. The generator produces either from the same catalog, and the validator detects a file's version automatically and applies the right field tables.

A note on CWR 3.x

CISAC has published CWR 3.0/3.1, but society adoption remains limited; 2.1/2.2 are what's deliverable in practice today, and they are what this site supports.

Check a CWR file free — errors and warnings tied to the exact line, nothing stored: cwrcheck.com.