The MLC completed 12 monthly royalty distributions in 2023, our third year of operations, and each of those distributions was completed on time or early. As the chart below shows, for the 12 monthly distributions in 2023, The MLC processed $980.0 million, directly distributed more than $732.1 million in royalties, and processed usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs valued at an additional $46.5 million — bringing our total royalties distributed during the year to roughly $778.6 million. Our initial match rate for those distributions averaged 85% but thanks to reprocessing, our average current match rate for those distributions is now more than 89%.

Here are some additional metrics for the 12 royalty distributions we completed in 2023:

2023 Royalty Distributions-1

2021 and 2022 Royalty Distributions – Continued Improvement

In addition to completing 12 more monthly royalty distributions in 2023, we continued to reprocess the remaining unpaid data from the nine monthly royalty distributions we completed in 2021 and the 12 monthly royalty distributions we completed in 2022, using the millions of new works registrations we received from our Members during the year. As a result of our efforts and the influx of so much additional data, we were able to pay out more than $37 million in additional royalties for those nine royalty periods completed in 2021, pay out more than $25 million in additional royalties for those 12 royalty periods completed in 2022, and correspondingly reduce the amount of unpaid royalties we were holding for both of those periods. The charts below show the cumulative metrics for our nine royalty distributions in 2021 and 12 royalty distributions in 2022 and the updated metrics for those distributions as of this February’s distribution.

2021 Royalty Distributions-1

2022 Royalty Distributions-1

For more details about the previous years’ metrics, click here to read the 2021 Annual Royalty Recap and here to read the 2022 Annual Royalty Recap.

Cumulative Totals for 3 Years of Royalty Distributions

The chart below shows our cumulative metrics for the nine months of distributions we completed in 2021, the 12 months of distributions we completed in 2022 and the 12 months of distributions we completed in 2023 — each as of this month’s February 2024 distribution.

Some important things to note:

  • Keep in mind that we only completed nine monthly distributions in 2021, while we completed 12 in 2022 and 12 in 2023, so the amounts for 2022 and 2023 will be higher because they include 3 additional monthly distributions.
  • Also keep in mind that we’ve had 12 more months to reprocess the 2021 distributions than we’ve had to reprocess the 2022 distributions; 24 more months to reprocess the 2021 distributions than we’ve had to reprocess the 2023 distributions; and 12 more months to reprocess the 2022 distributions than we’ve had to reprocess the 2023 distributions. This is why our current average match rate is higher for 2021 than 2022 and higher for 2022 than 2023 — because we have improved our average initial match rates year-over-year.

All Royalty Distributions-1

Breakdown of Blanket Royalties Pending After Distribution

The $397 million in total royalties represent blanket royalties that were still pending distribution after The MLC had completed its initial attempt to distribute these royalties. These remaining royalties represented blanket unmatched royalties, blanket unclaimed royalties and blanket matched royalties on hold.

Blanket Unmatched Royalties

These are unpaid royalties for sound recording usage data that occurred after January 1, 2021 that The MLC was unable to match with a corresponding musical work in The MLC database. The MLC regularly reprocesses blanket unmatched royalties against the most current monthly snapshot of the musical works data in The MLC’s database in an effort to reduce the amount of blanket unmatched royalties it has accrued. The total amount of blanket unmatched royalties being held by The MLC is approximately $209.7 million.

Blanket Unclaimed Royalties

These are royalties for usage that The MLC was able to match to a musical work in The MLC’s database, so these are not unmatched royalties. However, The MLC was not able to distribute these royalties because some of the shares of the registered works to which The MLC had matched the royalties had not yet been claimed by a Member of The MLC. The MLC cannot distribute royalties for shares that have not been claimed by rightsholders. The total amount of blanket unclaimed royalties being held by The MLC is approximately $164.2 million.

Blanket Held Royalties

These are royalties that The MLC was able to match to a musical work in The MLC database but were placed on hold for various legal or operational reasons, so these are also not unmatched royalties. They include royalties for works that are subject to ownership disputes, legal holds, overclaim holds, statutory termination holds or other review over eligibility for payment. The total amount of blanket held royalties is approximately $23.1 million.

How Can You Play Your Part?

  1. Register your songs: Make sure all of your songs have been accurately registered with The MLC. Anyone can use our Public Search tool to search for songs by writer and publisher name and spot missing songs. Members can see all of the songs they’ve registered in The MLC Portal by clicking on the Catalog view, and they can also download any or all of the songs in their catalog using our Catalog Export feature.
  2. Match your music: Members can use The MLC’s Matching Tool to search the data for unmatched uses and then propose matches of those uses to the works they’ve registered.
  3. Claim for credit: Members can use our Claiming Tool to search for registered works in our database for which they have not yet claimed any shares. Once they find registered works that are missing their shares, they can use the tool to claim those shares. Anyone, including songwriters who work with publishers and administrators, can use The MLC’s Public Search tool to see whether the shares for a given work have all been claimed.
  4. Don’t delay disputes: Whether you are party to a dispute with another Member or The MLC is investigating a work you have registered, please do your best to respond timely and completely to any inquiries you receive from The MLC and to provide any information you might have that may help resolve your dispute. The quicker you respond, the quicker The MLC can try and resolve the underlying issue and remove the hold placed on the royalties in question.

The MLC Has Fully Illuminated the “Black Box” 

In last year’s Annual Royalty Recap, we shared how we were illuminating the so-called “black box” of streaming mechanical royalties. Now, the data on all unmatched uses is posted and available to be searched by Members. As The MLC processes historical unmatched royalties and blanket royalties, we either match and distribute the royalties, or we make information on any remaining unmatched uses available to be searched by Members in The MLC’s Matching Tool. With this unprecedented transparency, The MLC has illuminated the “black box” of mechanical royalties for the first time. We encourage Members to take a look at the progress we’ve made in processing historical unmatched royalties by checking out our new web page here.