Spring is always a busy time in our industry. It’s been great connecting with many of you at recent conferences and events as we continue expanding our outreach and educational efforts worldwide.
In this newsletter, we highlight the key metrics from May’s royalty distribution and our latest enhancements to The MLC Portal. We also share a reminder to suggest songwriters for open seats on The MLC’s Board of Directors and advisory committees, information on our new free micro-course, and details about our upcoming RegFest webinar.
Please note that our Support Team will have modified hours for Memorial Day. You’ll find the full schedule at the end of this newsletter.
The MLC completed its fifth royalty distribution of the year on May 14. May’s distribution primarily covered newly reported usage that took place in February 2026. The total of all royalty pools reported to The MLC for this cycle was approximately $77.1 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 over 83 percent of the total royalty pools reported to us by DSPs primarily for their February 2026 usage to songs registered in our database.
After deducting $1.5 million in royalties for usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs with rightsholders, we collected approximately $75.7 million in royalties and distributed approximately $56.5 million to our Members.
We also continued to reprocess the remaining royalties from previous usage periods. As a result, we were able to distribute an additional $7.6 million in royalties from previously unmatched or unclaimed uses. (These are uses that we were able to match, through reprocessing, to data submitted to us after we completed the initial distribution cycle for that usage.) Thanks to reprocessing, our current average match rates for 2021 and 2022 now range between 93 and 95 percent, and our overall current match rate for all periods is now over 92 percent.
To learn more about our May 2026 distribution, click here:
We did not process any new adjustments in the May distribution. We plan to resume processing new adjustments in the June distribution.
We did reprocess adjustments to royalties originally reported in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and the resulting royalties totaled approximately $574k. To the extent the royalties from these reprocessed 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.
For a clear, up-to-date view of blanket mechanical royalties reported to us by DSPs that operate under the blanket license we administer — including breakdowns of amounts collected, matched, distributed, and more — check out our Blanket Royalties Dashboard here.
Update on DSPs Operating Under The Blanket License
The blanket compulsory license The MLC administers is available to eligible DSPs to cover the eligible services they operate in the United States. Currently, more than 50 DSPs operate under this blanket license. New DSPs may choose to obtain the blanket license by submitting a statutorily prescribed notice to The MLC. Existing blanket licensees may choose to stop operating under the blanket license by submitting a voluntary withdrawal, and The MLC can terminate the blanket license for an existing licensee if the DSP fails to comply with the statutory and regulatory terms applicable to blanket licensees.
Since our last newsletter, the following DSP has obtained the blanket license:
IMU, LLC obtained the blanket license on March 23 and indicated a launch date of April 24.
Additionally, the following DSP has withdrawn from the blanket license:
Rythm, Inc. withdrew from the blanket license as of May 6.
You can find more information by searching for each DSP’s Notice of License here.
Starting in April 2024, we began initially processing matched historical royalties for the Phono 3 rate period in sets. For each set of royalties from a given DSP (or DSPs), we would first distribute matched historical royalties for previously unpaid uses reported by the DSP(s) concerned, then we would aim to distribute matched historical royalties for previously partially paid uses from the same DSP(s) the following month. We have now initially processed the historical royalties we received from every DSP except for FanLabel and Weav utilizing this two-step process. (We expect to initially process the historical royalties for FanLabel and Weav later this year.)
Although we have largely finished initially processing these historical royalties, we continue to reprocess the remaining historical royalties from all three rate periods. This reprocessing resulted in our distribution of an additional $1.9 million in historical royalties this month, broken down as follows:
$2k in royalties for the Phono 1 rate period (2008-2012);
$208k in royalties for the Phono 2 rate period (2013-2017); and
$1.7 million in royalties for the Phono 3 rate period (2018-2020).
We will continue to reprocess the remaining historical royalties in the coming months in order to distribute even more of these royalties. To read more about the historical royalties we have distributed so far, click here:
We’ve made several updates to The MLC Portal this month, including new enhancements inspired by Member feedback and designed to make managing your catalog and registrations even easier.
New Filter Options in the Catalog Transfer Tool
The Catalog Transfer Tool allows Members to easily submit and manage transfer requests when acquiring or relinquishing rights to collect royalties for a collection of musical works. We’ve expanded the tool’s filter and sort capabilities to help Members stay on top of transfer requests. Members can now filter requests by publisher name and sort by last modified date, created date, or submitted date.
New Filter Option for Overclaims in Registration History
Our latest update to the Registration History tab provides increased visibility into works that are in overclaim, which occurs when the total ownership shares submitted by all Members for a registered work add up to more than 100%. Members can now filter their Registration History to show all works with an existing overclaim so they can quickly identify any conflicts that may require their attention.
Enhanced Search Capabilities
We’ve expanded search functionality within both The MLC Portal and the Public Work Search to give users more ways to find registered works in our database. In addition to existing search options, users can now search by ISRC, Recording Title, and Artist. This added flexibility makes it even easier to find the songs and recordings you’re looking for.
The MLC is still accepting suggestions of songwriter candidates for its Board of Directors and advisory committees. The terms of several songwriter seats on The MLC’s Board and committees are slated to end later this year. Open songwriter seats include:
Two (2) songwriter seats on the Board of Directors;
Two (2) songwriter seats on the Dispute Resolution Committee, which recommends policies and procedures to The MLC’s Board for the processing of royalties related to works that are subject to disputes over ownership; and
Two (2) songwriter seats on the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee, which recommends policies and procedures to The MLC’s Board related to the distribution of unclaimed accrued royalties.
To suggest a songwriter candidate, please complete this form by Tuesday, May 26. The MLC will submit all recommendations it receives to the Board’s Songwriter Nominating Committee for consideration.
Board and committee members sit for three-year terms and may be re-elected. Seats are filled according to The MLC’s Bylaws. More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and advisory committees can be found here.
We recently launched a free online micro-course designed to help music creators, current and aspiring industry professionals, and others better understand how music rights work and how to properly register music rights in order to ensure royalties are properly distributed to the appropriate rightsholders.
Music Registration 101: Registering Your Music covers key steps in the music registration process, including registering with The MLC, a PRO, the U.S. Copyright Office, a distributor, and SoundExchange. The course is available at no cost and is one of two free micro-courses currently offered by The MLC. For more information or to request enrollment, click here.
Learn how to register your songs and claim all of your income streams during RegFest, a free webinar for songwriters, artists, producers, and rightsholders. On Tuesday, June 16, join award-winning songwriter and artist Cassandra Kubinski, The MLC’s Sean McNamara, and SoundExchange’s Marc Rucker as they cover how The MLC and SoundExchange work, who they pay, and whether you need to register your songs and recordings. Whether you’re just starting out or managing an established catalog, RegFest gives you everything you need to know to collect what’s yours!
Please note our Support Team will have modified hours in observance of the Memorial Day weekend holiday as follows:
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