Abstract. Objective: The purpose of the present research was to compare the descriptive metadata of the audio archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) to the content classes of the PBCore metadata standard (i.e. Intellectual Content, Intellectual Property, Instantiation, and Extension). Methods: Using comparative survey, the tags of the PBCore metadata standard were extracted and translated. A checklist was also developed of fields classified under Intellectual Content, Intellectual Property, Instantiation, and Extension. Using these tags and fields the applications of each audio archive were compared to the PBCore metadata standard.Findings: The results indicated that the descriptive metadata of IRIB’s audio archives conforms to the PBCore metadata standard by 63 percent. The results also showed that audio archives conformed to the PBCore standard in terms of intellectual content, intellectual property, and instantiation, but not in terms of extension. This could be because storage and retrieval experts at IRIB focus primarily on domestic demands and ignore international standards. The results also suggest that the PBCore metadata standard can be used to describe the archives of IRIB for storage and retrieval.Conclusion: Overall, the results indicated the conformity of the audio archives of IRIB to the PBCore metadata standard. However, extensions are needed in the web, intranet, and internet to provide a repository for metadata from external systems. This will also allow for integration and standardization in converting and creating metadata for transfer between IRIB centers and foreign archives.