Summer is winding down and we are gearing up for what promises to be a busy and productive rest of the year at The MLC!
In this month’s newsletter, we provide another recap of our most recent royalty distribution, which brought the total amount of royalties distributed to Members of The MLC so far this year to more than $130 million! You will also find a detailed breakdown of two more important identifier codes, information about a new addition to The MLC’s Member Benefits program and a rundown of our upcoming webinars.
Another MLC royalty distribution is in the books! Our fifth distribution was completed on Thursday, August 12 and for the second consecutive month resulted in more than $30 million in royalties distributed to directly to Members of The MLC!
Covering usage by DSPs during May 2021, the total royalty pool reported to The MLC for this cycle was $54.3 million and we were able to match 83 percent of that amount to musical works registered in our database. After deducting the activity covered by voluntary licenses, we collected and distributed more than $32.9 million to Members. The remaining royalties pending distribution are as follows:
$9.2 million in royalties for uses we have not been able to match to registered works;
$5.1 million in royalties for shares of matched works that have not yet been registered (or claimed) by our Members; and
$208k in matched royalties on legal hold.
This month, we’re covering two more important identifier codes used by The MLC and other music industry organizations: International Standard Musical Work Codes (ISWCs) which are used to identify musical works and International Standard Recording Codes(ISRCs) which are used to identify individual versions of a sound recording or music video.
Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts regarding MLC webinars via our conversation platform. A number of your thoughts posed questions about metadata: what it is, how it works, and how it affects your royalty payments. Another popular thought asked how you can keep track of, and maximize, your mechanical royalties. A third popular thought noted how many different revenue sources there are.
So, in response, we are planning a NEW webinar that specifically covers the basics about metadata, the different sources of revenue for musicians in the streaming space, and some “best practices” for managing your metadata that you can adopt to ensure you’re getting paid all your mechanical royalties. This webinar is named: “Metadata and Money: What You Need to Know”. We hope you will join us for this new program! You can register for the webinar here.
We also have a number of other live webinars scheduled. We’ve highlighted those upcoming webinars below, but you can also find a full schedule of them on the Webinars and Video page of our website. That page is also where you can find recordings of our past webinars and tutorial videos – all of which are available for you to watch on-demand, whenever it’s convenient for you! If you haven’t already attended one of The MLC’s webinars, this is a great place to start!
Click on the links below to learn more and register for upcoming webinars.
The MLC Presents: Metadata & Money: What You Need to Know
We’re excited to announce a new addition to our Member Benefits program, which is a great offer fromSound Creditexclusively for Members of The MLC!
Sound Credit is a platform for music creators to enter, edit and deliver music credits, which can be entered using a DAW plug-in, desktop app, mobile app or kiosk. The information can be edited and finalized using the Sound Credit desktop app and then exported in 20 different formats once the project is complete. With a promo code, Members of The MLC will have 100% free, perpetual access to the Sound Credit desktop app and platform.
The MLC's CEO, Kris Ahrend, was recently interviewed by Blake Brittain of Reuters for a feature story on the origins of the Music Modernization Act and The MLC, our ongoing outreach efforts and royalty distributions and the future of The MLC.
The Support Team will continue to be available Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time. You can reach them by calling 615-488-3653, submitting this online form to be contacted by a Support Team member via e-mail or contacting the team within the Portal using the chat feature. The Support Team will not be available on Saturdays.
Additionally, the Support Team will be closed on Labor Day (Monday, September 6).
