Today we are writing to let you know that this week we distributed the first set of matched historical royalties that were transferred from Google Play to The MLC, totaling approximately $1.5 million. These matched royalties represent the first set of matched royalties we are distributing for uses that took place on this service during the Phonorecords 2 rate period (i.e., between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017). We will continue to hold any data related to uses that took place in the Phonorecords 3 rate period while we await the issuance of a final rate determination by the Copyright Royalty Board for the Phonorecords 3 rate period.

Additionally, we distributed approximately $100k in newly matched royalties for the other 8 DSPs we have previously begun to distribute, bringing our total September distribution of matched historical royalties to approximately $1.6 million.

These historical royalties are identified separately on the royalty statements we provide to Members, and we specify the usage month for these historical royalties just like we already do for blanket royalties.

Next week, Members will be able to search the fourth set of historical unmatched royalty data — data that remained unmatched after we completed our initial internal matching processes — using the Matching Tool in The MLC Portal. This fourth set of data consists of the remaining unmatched data for all rate periods from Google Play, YouTube and Wolfgang’s.

So, when Members use the Matching Tool to search for unmatched data that corresponds to their musical works, their search results will include the remaining historical unmatched data from these three DSPs, in addition to the remaining historical unmatched data from the 16 DSPs that we added to the Matching Tool over the last four months (i.e., Deezer, Hoopla, Pandora, SoundCloud, Tidal, iHeart, Apple Music, Pacemaker, Recisio, Weav, Amazon, Trebel, Audiomack, GTL, Mixcloud and Qobuz).

As we shared before, unmatched usage data is identified in the search results within the Matching Tool as follows:

• An “H” icon will indicate historical unmatched usage that took place before January 1, 2021 (the blanket license effective date)
• A “B” icon will indicate blanket unmatched usage that took place on or after January 1, 2021
• Search results that display both icons will identify unmatched usage that took place both before and after January 1, 2021

To the extent Members propose matches that cover data from any of these 19 DSPs, once accepted, The MLC will reference these matches when we process (or reprocess) blanket royalties and historical royalties in future distributions.

Since the summer, we have shared status updates with you at least once a month on our efforts to match the data we received for historical unmatched uses and then pay out the matched royalties. If you want to catch up on any of these Member communications, you can find all the updates here. We will reach out again in the coming weeks with another update about the next wave of data that will be uploaded to the Portal and the matched historical royalties that will be paid out in the October distribution. Thank you for continuing to Play Your Part in The MLC process.

The Support Team Is Here For You!

Email: Start here

Call: 615-488-3653

Chat: In the Portal