Since the last edition of this newsletter, we published our 2021 Interim Annual Report, recapping the work we did in the lead up to the License Availability Date on January 1, 2021, highlighting some of our key performance metrics from our first full year of operations. We compiled this interim report at the request of U.S. Copyright Office. We will issue our first full annual report (also covering 2021) later this summer. 

Our performance metrics for the year show how growing our Membership and increasing the number of musical works in our database enabled us to continue to improve our initial match rates, resulting in higher and higher royalty distributions to our Members. By the end of 2021, The MLC’s Membership had grown to more than 16,000 members (more than double the number of Members we had at the beginning of the year), and our database contained data for almost 24 million songs. As a result, we were able to distribute more than $290 million in royalties to our Members.   

Looking ahead, one of our primary areas of focus this year will be beginning to process and distribute some of the historic unmatched royalties we received. We’ve included an update on that work in this newsletter. We will also continue our outreach and education efforts, and like so many of you we are excited to begin participating in more “in-person” events in 2022. Finally, we will continue to expand and enhance our tools for Members. We’ve highlighted two of our newest tools – our Claiming Tool and Public Search API - in this newsletter. 

On behalf of our entire team, I want to thank you for your continued interest in our operations and your continued support for our mission. I look forward to sharing more with you as the year progresses. 

All my best,