CWR File Viewer

A Visual Studio Code extension that turns unreadable CWR files into a colour-coded, interactive viewer.

What is a CWR file?

CWR (Common Works Registration) is the international standard format used by music publishers to register musical works with performing and mechanical rights societies worldwide — PRS, ASCAP, BMI, SOCAN, STIM, GEMA and others.

A CWR file is plain text with fixed-width records. Every line is a wall of characters with no separators — fields are identified purely by their byte position. Reading one without tooling looks like this:

NWR0000000100000000MY FAVOURITE SONG                              EN00000001   T0123456789POP000727Y
SPU000000010000000101000100001UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING             E       021050000220
SWR000000010000000200000001SMITH                        JOHN          CA     021050000

This extension makes that readable.

What the extension does

When you open a .V21, .V20 or .cwr file in VS Code it automatically activates and displays the file with:

• Every field colour-coded by its type — work titles, IPI numbers, share percentages, territory codes, dates and more are each a distinct colour
• A record type badge on the left of every line showing what the line is (NWR, SPU, SWR etc.)
• A stats panel at the top counting every record type in the file
• A search bar to filter lines by record type or any text
• Tooltips showing the field name when you hover over any coloured segment
• A field popup showing the field name, value and exact byte position when you click any segment

Colour reference

How to use it

Opening a file

Open any .V21, .V20 or .cwr file in VS Code — the viewer activates automatically. You do not need to do anything else.

If you want to open the same file as plain text instead, click the ⌨ Plain Text button in the top-right toolbar.

Stats panel

At the top of the viewer you will see a row of badges — one for each record type present in the file, with a count:

HDR 1   GRH 1   NWR 130   SPU 163   SWR 174   SPT 163  ...

Click any badge to jump to the first occurrence of that record type.

Search and filter

Type in the search box to show only matching lines:

The search box border turns green when results are found and red when nothing matches. Click ✕ to clear the filter and show all lines again.

Inspecting a field

• Hover any coloured segment to see its field name in a tooltip
• Click any coloured segment to open a popup showing:
  • The field name
  • The field value
  • The exact byte position (start – end)
  • The record type description

Supported record types

Any line with an unrecognised record type is displayed as plain grey text and will not break the viewer.

Supported file extensions

The extension activates automatically for:

Reference

• CISAC CWR Documentation
• CWR User Manual: CWR11-1494