Fill in the spreadsheet template

Updated October 29, 20264 min readGeneral

Use this guide to fill in the template for the CWR creator. CWR (Common Works Registration) is the text format publishers use to register works with collecting societies.

Your file is never uploaded.

One row for each line

Each row of the sheet is one line of a work. The first column, Row type, says what the row describes:

Row type	What the row holds
WORK	The work itself: title, ISWC, language, length and category.
WRITER	A writer of the work, with the shares the writer owns.
PUBLISHER	A publisher of the work, with the shares the publisher owns.
ALT TITLE	Another title the work is known by.
PERFORMER	An artist who performs the work.
RECORDING	A recording of the work, with its ISRC.

The second column, Work number, is your own number for the work. Every row of one work carries the same number. Each work has exactly one WORK row. The creator counts WORK rows to count your works.

An example

Here is the start of the example file, cut down to a few columns.

Row type	Work number	Title	Controlled	Role	Name	PR owned %
WORK	EX-0001	Paper Lanterns
PUBLISHER	EX-0001		Y	E	Example Songs Publishing	25
WRITER	EX-0001		Y	CA	Quillfeather	25
WORK	EX-0002	Third Window

Rows with the same work number belong together. Work EX-0001 has a publisher and a writer. Work EX-0002 has its own WORK row, and its writers and publishers come on the rows below it.

Select "Example (.csv)" in the tool to get the full file. Every name, number, and code in it is made up.

Rules for the rows

Fill in Row type and Work number on every row. A row without them is an error.
Put a WORK row for each work. A row whose work number has no WORK row is an error.
Give each work its own number. The same number on two WORK rows is an error.
A work number holds up to 14 characters.
Every work needs at least one WRITER row.
Fill only the columns a row type uses. A value in a column that row type does not use is left out of the file, and the creator warns you. The Columns reference shows which columns each row type uses.

CSV or Excel

The tool takes both.

Excel (.xlsx). The workbook has two sheets. "Template" is the sheet you fill in. "How to fill it in" explains every column, with one row for each column: the column, the row types that read it, the row types that must fill it, and what to put in it. The creator reads the sheet called "Template". If there is no such sheet, it reads the first sheet. The template sets its columns to text, so Excel keeps values such as 00123 and 33.33 as you type them.
CSV. The creator reads a CSV with commas, semicolons, or tabs between columns. It reads UTF-8 files, and files that Excel on Windows saves as CSV. It will not read old .xls files. In Excel, choose Save as and pick "Excel Workbook (.xlsx)" or "CSV".

The header row must be the first row with anything in it. You can change the order of the columns. The creator reads the column names, not their places. It also reads some other spellings of a column name. See the Columns reference.

Keep spreadsheet damage out

A spreadsheet can turn 00123 into 123, 3:25 into a time, or an IPI name number into scientific form. Format those columns as text before you type. See Fix spreadsheet damage and Fix row problems.