Spring is in full swing! We hope to see many of you at upcoming events around the country.

In this newsletter, we highlight the key metrics from April’s royalty distribution, along with our latest enhancements to The MLC Portal. We also explain how to submit suggestions for open Publisher seats and open songwriter seats on The MLC’s Board of Directors and advisory committees. Finally, we share details about our upcoming webinar highlighting exclusive benefits available to Members.

The MLC completed its fourth royalty distribution of the year on April 16. April’s distribution primarily covered newly reported usage that took place in January 2026. The total of all royalty pools reported to The MLC for this cycle was approximately $81.9 million.

Every month, our team attempts to match the newly reported sound recording uses we receive to the musical works data in our public database and then distributes the resulting matched royalties to our Members. This month, we were able to match over 83 percent of the total royalty pools reported to us by DSPs for their January 2026 usage to songs registered in our database.

After deducting $1.6 million in royalties for usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs with rightsholders, we collected approximately $80.3 million in royalties and distributed approximately $60.4 million to our Members.

We also continued to reprocess the remaining royalties from previous usage periods. As a result, we were able to distribute an additional $23.2 million in royalties from previously unmatched or unclaimed uses. (These are uses that we were able to match, through reprocessing, to data submitted to us after we completed the initial distribution cycle for that usage.) Thanks to reprocessing, our current average match rates for 2021 and 2022 now range between 93 and 95 percent, and our overall current match rate for all periods is now over 92 percent.

To learn more about our April 2026 distribution, click here:

We did not process any new adjustments in the April distribution. We plan to resume processing new adjustments in the May distribution.

We did reprocess adjustments to royalties originally reported in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the resulting royalties totaled approximately $1.5 million. To the extent the royalties from these reprocessed adjustments pertained to works in your catalog, you will see them identified on your statement by the category type ["Adjustments"], along with the names of the specific DSP for which the adjustment was made.

Here is a tentative schedule showing when we are planning to process the remaining adjustments for 2021, 2022, and 2023.

For a clear, up-to-date view of blanket mechanical royalties reported to us by DSPs that operate under the blanket license we administer — including breakdowns of amounts collected, matched, distributed, and more — check out our Blanket Royalties Dashboard here.

Update on DSPs Operating Under The Blanket License

The blanket compulsory license The MLC administers is available to eligible DSPs to cover the eligible services they operate in the United States. Currently, more than 50 DSPs operate under this blanket license. New DSPs may choose to obtain the blanket license by submitting a statutorily prescribed notice to The MLC. Existing blanket licensees may choose to stop operating under the blanket license by submitting a voluntary withdrawal, and The MLC can terminate the blanket license for an existing licensee if the DSP fails to comply with the statutory and regulatory terms applicable to blanket licensees.

Since our last newsletter, the following DSP has obtained a blanket license:

• Music Co, LLC obtained the blanket license on March 23 and has indicated a launch date of April 17.

No DSPs have voluntarily withdrawn their blanket license, nor has The MLC terminated any blanket licenses since our last newsletter.

You can find more information by searching for each DSP’s Notice of License here.

We continue to reprocess the remaining unmatched historical royalties from previous distributions. This month’s distribution included newly matched historical royalties for uses that took place between 2008 and 2017 during the Phono 1 and 2 rate periods, and between 2018 and 2020 during the Phono 3 rate period. As a result of reprocessing these remaining unmatched historical usages, we were able to distribute approximately $4.7 million in additional historical royalties this month, plus interest, from a number of digital services.

Overall, The MLC has been able to match and distribute nearly $234 million — nearly 59 percent — of the $397 million in previously unmatched historical royalties that DSPs transferred to us in 2021. To read more about the historical royalties we have distributed so far, click here:

This month, we’ve made improvements to our Catalog Transfer and Overclaims tools to improve efficiency and save you time when managing your works.

The Catalog Transfer Tool allows Members to easily submit and manage transfer requests when they need to acquire or relinquish rights to collect royalties for a collection of musical works. Previously, when submitting a new transfer request, Members had to select “Yes” or “No” for each work in the Excel file containing their catalog. Now, Members can select all of the works in the file with one click, then remove any works they want to exclude from the catalog transfer, saving time when submitting new requests.

The Overclaims Tool enables Members to view and resolve overclaims, which occur when the total ownership shares submitted by all Members for a registered work add up to more than 100%. Within the Overclaims Tool, Members can easily upload documentation to support their claimed shares. Now, uploaded documents can be saved for future use, making them easy to access when substantiating future claims without having to upload them again.

We hope you find these updates helpful! Stay tuned for more enhancements coming soon.

The MLC is now accepting suggestions of Publisher candidates and songwriter candidates for its Board of Directors and advisory committees. The terms of several Publisher seats and songwriter seats on The MLC’s Board and committees are slated to end later this year.

To suggest a Publisher candidate, please complete this form by Monday, May 4. Open Publisher seats include:

• One (1) seat for a Publisher representative on the Board of Directors;
• Two (2) seats for representatives of musical work copyright owners on the Dispute Resolution Committee, which recommends policies and procedures to The MLC’s Board for the processing of royalties related to works that are subject to disputes over ownership;
• Two (2) seats for representatives of musical work copyright owners on the Operations Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Board concerning the operations of The MLC, including the efficient investment in and deployment of information technology and data resources; and 
• One (1) seat for a representative of musical work copyright owners on the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee, which recommends policies and procedures to The MLC’s Board related to the distribution of unclaimed accrued royalties.

To suggest a songwriter candidate, please complete this form by Tuesday, May 26. Open songwriter seats include:

• Two (2) songwriter seats on the Board of Directors;
• Two (2) songwriter seats on the Dispute Resolution Committee; and
• Two (2) songwriter seats on the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee.

Board and committee members sit for three-year terms and may be re-elected. Seats are filled according to The MLC’s Bylaws. More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and advisory committees can be found here.

As a Member of The MLC, you have access to exclusive benefits and resources to help support your music career. Our Member benefits webinar series highlights these opportunities and shows you how to make the most of them. Our next webinar is coming up on Tuesday, May 5, when we’ll be joined by a representative from BandLab Technologies for a 30-minute demo of their free creation tools. The session will show users how to easily capture ideas on the go, write and arrange with virtual instruments, and collaborate with co-writers in real time. To register, click here:

Team members from The MLC will be participating in several sessions at this year’s Music Biz conference in Atlanta, happening May 11-14. These sessions will cover rights and royalties, building a sustainable music career, fraud detection and prevention, and more.

• Monday, May 11: “Royalties 101: How The MLC Gets You Paid” with The MLC’s Dae Bogan
• Monday, May 11: “Be Your Own CEO!” with The MLC’s Lindsey Major
• Tuesday, May 12: “The Schemes, Scams & Solutions in Publishing Fraud” with The MLC’s Andrew Mitchell
• Thursday, May 14: “Beyond the Classroom: Implementing Hands-On Learning in Music Business Education” with The MLC’s Serona Elton

Click here to view the full agenda. We hope to see you there!

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