An Update from CEO, Kris Ahrend

Payments were sent out on Friday, April 16th – exactly 75 days after the end of January, right on schedule. Our distribution of royalties for the first time represented yet another key milestone envisioned by the Music Modernization Act. It was a true team effort in every respect, and I’m grateful for the hard work and dedication of our entire team and the support of our many partners.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

The distribution covered royalties paid on uses of musical works during January 2021.
The royalty pools reported to The MLC totaled more than $53 million.
We were able to match roughly 80 percent of the royalties reported to musical works registered in our public database, which is right in line with industry benchmarks.
As a result of these matches:
- The MLC was able to distribute more than $24 million in matched royalties directly to our Members, and
- The MLC sent data for an additional $13 million in matched royalties back to DSPs to use as the basis for paying royalties covered by their voluntary licenses with rightsholders.

While we are encouraged by the 80 percent initial match rate for our first distribution, we expect that figure – and the total royalties claimed by MLC Members – to increase in the future as current MLC Members confirm their splits on newly-released works and new Members join and add their data for previously-unregistered works to the database. The MLC will also continue to work closely with DSPs to improve the quality of the data they supply us, which will improve the results of our matching processes.

We have created a dedicated FAQ page on our website where you can find additional information on our anticipated timing for future royalty distributions, a description of the data Members can expect to see in their royalty statements, and more. As we do with all of the content our website, we will continue to add new information about the royalty distribution process as we complete additional distributions, so be sure to check back often.

Finally, with monthly distributions underway, I want to remind you that our friendly and knowledgeable MLC Support Team is ready to answer any questions you might have about The MLC, including the royalty distribution process and your royalty statements and payments. They are available 12 hours a day during the week (Monday thru Friday, from 8 am to 8 pm Central Time), and 9 hours on Saturdays (from 8 am to 5 pm Central Time). You can contact the Support Team by filling out this form or calling them at (615) 488-3653.

All my best,