We are thrilled to share with you that following our most recent royalty distribution, The MLC has now distributed more than $100 million in royalties to our Members since we began full operations at the beginning of this year. With another 5 distributions left to complete over the remainder of this year, there’s still plenty of time for new Members to join The MLC and start receiving royalties from us in 2021. Please consider letting others in your professional networks know that you’re now getting paid by The MLC, and encourage them to become Members so they too can Connect to Collect.
We are also pleased to share that our match rate has continued to improve month after month through four distributions. That improvement is due in no small part to the fact that we’ve received more than 3 million works registrations since the beginning of the year from our Members. By reviewing your data, and submitting registrations to update existing works and register new works, you are ensuring The MLC has the data it needs to get you paid. Thank you for Playing Your Part!
In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find some additional details about our July royalty distribution, information about an Unclaimed Royalties report the U.S. Copyright Office issued, a rundown of our upcoming Member webinars, and more.
As always, if you have any questions about The MLC, your works, or the royalties you are receiving, please don’t hesitate to give our Support Team a call at 615-488-3653. We’re here to help.
The MLC’s fourth royalty distribution – completed right on schedule – set a new record for total royalties distributed to The MLC’s Members.
The total royalty pool reported to The MLC for this cycle was $56.1 million. Of that, we were able to match 83.3 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 $34 million to Members of The MLC. The remaining royalties pending distribution are as follows:
$9.4 million in royalties for uses we have not been able to match to registered works;
$5.5 million in royalties for shares of matched works that have not yet been registered (or claimed) by our Members; and
$277k in matched royalties on legal hold.
While this month’s distribution primarily covered usage by DSPs during April 2021, it also included some royalties for prior months’ usage that was not previously distributed due to DSP reporting or payment issues. We also distributed royalties related to previously unmatched works that we reprocessed for a second time. We are now processing and distributing royalties received from 40 DSPs operating under the blanket license.
On July 8, The U.S. Copyright Office released a report titled Unclaimed Royalties: Best Practice Recommendations for The Mechanical Licensing Collective. The report compiles the Office’s recommendations on how The MLC can reduce the amount of unclaimed royalties that result from The MLC’s distribution process.
From time to time, we like to cover topics in the Member newsletter that relate to the language and terminology associated with the mechanical licensing process and The MLC’s work. This month, we’re going to talk about the Interested Party Information (IPI) system.
If you’re a songwriter Member and you have questions about The MLC, your musical works data, or anything else, we have a webinar coming up on August 6th that is just for you. Click on the registration link for “Q&A for Self-Administered Songwriters” webinar to join members of our Leadership Team for a session devoted entirely to answering your questions.
Also, coming up soon is a webinar covering everything Members need to know about their royalty payments and statements. If you have not previously participated in one of our Member webinars on royalties, we strongly encourage you to join us for the next one on July 20th.
The MLC Presents: Understanding Your Royalty Statements
In last month’s newsletter, we announced that The MLC has collaborated with industry partners like Cosynd, Veva Collect, TuneRegistry, Music Law Pro and others to create a package of special offers and discounts on useful services for songwriters and publishers – and these are deals available only to Members of The MLC!
If you haven’t already, click on the link below to review all the current deals available to our Members.
If you need assistance or have questions about royalty payments and statements, musical works data or anything else related to your MLC Membership, our Support Team is eager to help you out!
