As always, in this month’s newsletter, we highlight key metrics from our July royalty distribution. We also share our latest enhancement to The MLC Portal, and offer some guidance regarding The MLC’s role in helping Members resolve overclaims and disputes.
We hope you’re having a great summer! As always, in this month’s newsletter, we highlight key metrics from our July royalty distribution. We also share our latest enhancement to The MLC Portal, and offer some guidance regarding The MLC’s role in helping Members resolve overclaims and disputes. In addition, we provide information on our upcoming Class B Board of Directors election, and announce the date of our 2025 Annual Membership Meeting. Finally, we share some exciting new benefits available to Members, along with a discount code for the upcoming Reeperbahn Festival.
The MLC completed its seventh royalty distribution of the year on July 14, bringing us to 52 total royalty distributions since we began full operations — all of which were completed on time or early. July’s distribution primarily covered newly reported usage that took place in April 2025. The total of all royalty pools reported to The MLC for this cycle was approximately $79.0 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 more than 85 percent of the total royalty pools reported to us by DSPs for their April 2025 usage to songs registered in our database.
After deducting royalties for usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs with rightsholders, we collected approximately $76.2 million in royalties and distributed approximately $57.6 million to our Members. To learn more about our July 2025 distribution, click here:
We continue to process adjustments to blanket usage from the last two years of the Phono 3 rate period (i.e., 2021 and 2022). These adjustments represent the difference between the royalties we initially processed for the usage periods from those two years at the Phono 2 rates and the royalties that are due at the final Phono 3 rates. In the July distribution, we processed blanket royalty adjustments totaling $36.4 million.
At the same time, we continue to process adjustments for 2023 delivered to us by certain DSPs in connection with their Annual Reports of Usage (ARoU). In the July distribution, we processed blanket royalty adjustments for 2023 that reflected a total net overpayment of $1.7 million. To the extent any of these 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.
Since April 2024, we have been distributing matched historical royalties in sets. For each set of royalties from a given DSP (or DSPs), we first distribute matched historical royalties for previously unpaid uses reported by the DSP(s) concerned, then we aim to distribute matched historical royalties for previously partially paid uses from the same DSP(s) the following month. This month, we distributed the second set of royalties for Deezer and Bill Graham in the amount of $114k.
We also continued 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 2007 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 $3.3 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 $227 million — or more than 57 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:
When creating a catalog export in the Catalog section of The MLC Portal, there is now an option to select a PDF version of your export. The PDF format makes it easy to review, share, and archive your catalog in a clean, readable format.
In The MLC Portal, select “Catalog” from the left-hand menu, then click the “Export” button. In the slide-out menu that appears, select the PDF option, then click the “Download” button. Once your files are prepared, a PDF export will be sent to your email for download.
Stay tuned for more updates and enhancements coming soon!
The MLC currently maintains a database of nearly 50 million works. Thanks to the visibility into our song data, along with our ongoing outreach efforts, we have received a significant number of new works registrations from collective management organizations (CMOs, or “societies”) based outside the U.S. Sometimes, these new claims conflict with existing claims submitted by U.S.-based publishers or administrators. When this happens, The MLC follows its Dispute Policy to address – and help facilitate the resolution of – these conflicts, just like it does with any other type of conflict. For more details on why these conflicts occur and how to prevent or resolve them, click here.
The MLC’s annual election for its Board of Directors will begin in August. Ballots will be sent to eligible Class B Members in an email from Votenet Solutions/eBallot. Two Class B publisher seats are up for election, each for three-year terms beginning after The MLC’s 2025 Annual Membership Meeting. The candidates receiving the most votes will be recommended to the U.S. Librarian of Congress for appointment to The MLC’s Board of Directors. Election results will be announced during the Annual Membership Meeting this fall.
Members of The MLC can now enjoy discounts on even more music industry products and services. We’re excited to announce the addition of Artist Growth, BandLab, Golden Lotus Studio, Mogul, and Session to our Member benefits program. We’ll continue to review and refresh our benefits program to add value to the careers of songwriters and the work of our music publisher members. To view the full list of offers, click on the Member Benefits link at the bottom of the left-hand menu in The MLC Portal.
Are you planning to attend Reeperbahn Festival in September? The MLC team will be presenting a Masterclass, and we’ve partnered with the festival to arrange a discounted registration rate for Members. Just enter the promo code THEMLC-RBFC25-AB1DRS when you buy your tickets here. We hope to see you there!
