Dear Member,

A month ago, we shared a status update announcing that Members are now able to use the Matching Tool in The MLC’s Portal to search the first set of data for historical unmatched uses. Last week, we shared an update announcing we began distributing the first set of royalties for matched historical uses in our June monthly royalty distribution.

Beginning today, Members can also search a second set of historical unmatched royalty data — data that remained unmatched after we completed our initial matching processes — using the Matching Tool in The MLC Portal. This second set of data consists of the remaining unmatched data for all rate periods from the following four DSPs: Apple, Pacemaker, Recisio and Weav.  

So now, when Members use the Matching Tool to search for unmatched data that corresponds to their musical works, their search results will also include the remaining historical unmatched data from these four DSPs, in addition to the remaining historical unmatched data from the six DSPs that we added to the Matching Tool last month (i.e., Deezer, Hoopla, Pandora, SoundCloud, Tidal and iHeart).

As we shared before, unmatched usage data is now 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 ten DSPs, once accepted, The MLC will reference these matches when we process (or reprocess) blanket royalties and historical royalties in future distributions.

Of the four DSPs from which we received the data that is being made available to be searched in the Matching Tool starting today, only one DSP, Apple, transferred data and royalties related to uses that took place in the Phonorecords 2 rate period or prior periods. Thus, the only new DSP for which we will include royalties from matched historical uses in our next distribution (in July) will be Apple. The other three DSPs only transferred data and royalties related to uses that took place in the Phonorecords 3 rate period. We will continue to hold that data and those royalties while we await the issuance of a final rate determination by the Copyright Royalty Board for the Phonorecords 3 rate period.

We will reach out again next month with another update, once we're ready to make the third set of remaining unmatched historical data available to be searched in the Matching Tool.

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