Thanks to all of you who attended our Annual Member Meeting this month. We were excited to announce that we had reached nearly $2.5 billion in total royalties distributed. We’ve included a recap of the meeting and a link to the recording below.

In this month’s Member newsletter, we also offer details and an important update on an issue with our most recent royalty distribution, a notice of a blanket license termination, information about a recently published webpage on Notices of Statutory Terminations, and details about an upcoming webinar. As always, thank you for reading our monthly updates.

The MLC completed its tenth royalty distribution of the year on October 11, bringing us to 43 total royalty distributions since we began full operations — all of which have been completed on time or early. October’s distribution primarily covered newly reported usage that took place in July of 2024. The total of all royalty pools reported to The MLC for this cycle was approximately $86.4 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. In October’s distribution, we were able to match nearly 86 percent of the total royalty pools initially reported to us by DSPs for their July 2024 usage to songs registered in our database.   

After deducting royalties for usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs with rightsholders, we collected approximately $83.2 million in royalties and distributed approximately $62.6 million to our Members.  

To learn more about our October 2024 distribution, click here: 

While preparing for the November 2024 distribution, we discovered an issue that affected some of the historical royalties we included in the October distribution. The October distribution was only supposed to include the first set of matched historical royalties for usage on Spotify that took place in 2020 (usages for which Spotify previously did not pay out any royalties), but this issue caused both sets of matched historical royalties on Spotify from 2020 to be included in the October distribution, and as a result the royalties in the second set (for usages that were previously partially paid) were incorrectly calculated.

We have identified and resolved the cause of this issue. Importantly, this issue did not affect any of the matched historical royalties we distributed prior to October, and it only impacted a portion of the matched historical royalties we distributed in October (i.e., the second set of royalties from Spotify’s 2020 usage).

We intend to correct the second set of Spotify royalties in the November distribution by: (1) reversing the incorrectly calculated royalties that were inadvertently distributed in October, and then (2) adding back the correctly calculated royalties on the statements for those Members entitled to receive them. This means that all impacted Members will see historical royalty usage lines for Spotify's 2020 usage with negative dollar values on their November statements (reflecting the reversal of incorrectly calculated royalties), and those impacted Members entitled to receive royalties from this second set will also see new usage lines for Spotify's 2020 usage with positive dollar values (representing the correctly calculated royalties for this usage).

Because we had already planned to process this second set of matched historical royalties for Spotify's 2020 usage in the November distribution, making these corrections in November's distribution will not impact our schedule for distributing the remaining matched historical royalties for the Phono 3 rate period. You can find a link to that schedule in the Historical Royalties Update located below.

Thank you for your understanding. As always, if you have any questions, please contact our Support Team.

In October’s distribution, we continued to process Phono 3 adjustments. We processed these adjustments for five DSPs, covering usage they originally reported to us in 2021 and 2022. These adjustments represent the difference between the royalties we initially processed for the usage periods during those two years at the Phono 2 rates and the royalties that are due at the Phono 3 rates (now that these rates have been finalized). The aggregate value of these adjustments was approximately $362k. 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 from which the adjustments were received.

Since April, 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 (or DSPs) concerned, and we then we aim to distribute matched historical royalties for previously partially paid uses from that same DSP (or DSPs) in the following month. 

In October, we distributed $39 million in historical royalties. Of this amount, more than $38 million originated from Spotify usage in 2020, while the rest of these royalties were from reprocessing of the remaining historical usage from previously completed distributions.

Much of the $38 million relates to previously unmatched historical usages on Spotify from 2020, but a portion of this amount represents royalties for previously partially paid usages on Spotify from 2020 that were inadvertently processed and distributed in October instead of in the November distribution as intended. As described above in the October 2024 Distribution Update, we will correct this issue in the November distribution by reversing the incorrectly calculated royalties distributed in October and adding corrected royalties to the November statements for the Members entitled to receive them.

To read more about the historical unmatched royalties we have distributed so far, click here: 

In case you missed it, on October 8 we held our fourth annual membership meeting. At that meeting, we announced that we had reached nearly $2.5 billion in total royalties distributed. We also announced the re-selection of Oak Felder to serve as a Songwriter Director on our Board of Directors, the re-election of Rell Lafargue as a Publisher Director on the Board, and the election of Jason Rys as a Publisher Director on the Board.   

Here are some of the key metrics and milestones The MLC’s leadership team shared during the meeting: 

• The MLC enrolled more than 47,000 Members, having added more than 11,000 to date in 2024 — putting us on track to have our largest annual increase in Members ever.
• The MLC compiled data for more than 42 million works in our public database, with data for over 7 million new works added in 2024.
• The MLC’s current match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution was over 90 percent.
• The MLC completed 42 monthly royalty distributions to date through the September distribution, every one of which was completed on time or early. 
• As of the September distribution, The MLC achieved total royalties distributed of more than $2.4 billion since launching full operations, as well as more than $150 million of the nearly $400 million in previously unmatched historical royalties that DSPs transferred to The MLC.
• The MLC continued to develop new tools for Members, including the recently released Overclaims Tool, while also enhancing our growing suite of existing tools that enable Members to register works, claim their shares of previously registered works, submit proposed matches of their works to unmatched usage, and more.

The MLC also described how it continued to conduct extensive outreach and educational activities aimed at reaching every corner of the rightsholder community, with over 200 outreach and education events held in 2024 alone.

Transsnet Music Limited d/b/a Boomplay (“Boomplay”) had its blanket license terminated effective October 8, 2024. The blanket license was terminated due to Boomplay’s failure to comply with certain statutory obligations, despite receiving formal notice of default from The MLC and having the benefit of the two-month cure period set forth in the MMA. A copy of the Notice of Blanket License Termination is archived in The MLC’s searchable index of DSP Notices, available here.

What does this mean for you? Boomplay can no longer rely on the blanket license for the rights to make and distribute digital copies of your songs. Instead, Boomplay will have to license your songs from you and pay you mechanical royalties directly. You will not receive royalty payments from The MLC for any uses of your songs by Boomplay after the date of termination. However, you may still receive royalties from The MLC for uses that took place prior to termination.

Check out our newly published webpage on the Statutory Termination Right. This resource contains helpful information on a number of important topics related to how The MLC handles Notices of Statutory Terminations, including how parties can seek support related to the termination claims they submit to The MLC. Visit The MLC's Statutory Terminations page to learn more.

Join us for an informative webinar on how to effectively use The MLC’s Public Work Search tool to find and claim your streaming royalties.  

In this webinar, we will guide you through the features and functionalities of the Public Work Search, helping you navigate the database to access essential information about song ownership and rights. We will share best practices for verifying your songs and address your questions to help you maximize your royalty collection. 

Whether you’re a songwriter, music publisher, or a music enthusiast, understanding song ownership is crucial in today’s music industry. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to leverage this powerful resource to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions regarding your music. 

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