Let’s start at the top by looking at the global ISRC Standards published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) which state:
“Where a recording is encoded technically, for instance as an audio MP3 file, an audiovisual MP4 file, a stream, a CD, DVD or BluRay disk, the ISRC should if possible be encoded alongside the recording … The encoding of an ISRC should, where possible, be made as secure and persistent as possible. This can be done for example through the use of watermarking, fingerprinting, digital tags, bar codes, cryptographic hashes, digital signatures and other techniques.”
By no means are we making a case that embedding is an absolute requirement everywhere. It depends on where you plan to sell/stream your music. Different stores and aggregators have different requirements. Clients have reported that ISRC embedding was asked of them to submit audio to radio stations, to synch licensing, and submit videos to MTV & VH1 as well as parts of YouTube, for example.
Regardless of requirement, embedding your ISRC codes, UPC codes, and other identifying information into your work before you put your work out there in public is simply best practices and a smart thing to do. The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) is the global standard for proper identification of recordings. Why would you not want to properly identify your work with the ISRC and all of the other information about your recording?