This month’s distribution, our first of the year, was completed on January 12. This brought us to 34 total royalty distributions since we began full operations — all of which were on time or early. January’s distribution primarily covered newly reported usage that took place in October of 2023. The total of all royalty pools reported to The MLC for this cycle was approximately $98.4 million — our highest total to date!  

Every month our team attempts to match sound recording uses 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 nearly 85 percent of the total royalty pools we administered to songs currently registered in our database.   

After deducting royalties for usage covered by voluntary licenses maintained by DSPs with rightsholders, we collected approximately $94.0 million in royalties and distributed approximately $68.6 million to our Members.  

Finally, we have one correction to make about the year-end metrics we shared in the December newsletter. As of the December 2023 distribution, The MLC had distributed more than $179 million in voluntary royalties, not $179 thousand, as previously reported.  

As you regularly see in our monthly newsletters, we always break down the remaining royalties that are pending distribution into the following three categories: unmatched, unclaimed and on hold. We do this to provide greater transparency into the reasons these royalties are being held and to help you understand the steps you can take to help us reduce these amounts. For a refresher on these terms and what you can do to collect your royalties, check out the Annual Royalty Recap we shared in February. 

This month, the remaining royalties still pending distribution break down as follows:  

  •  $14.8 million in royalties for uses we have not been able to match to registered works;  
  • $8.7 million in royalties for shares of matched works that have not yet been registered (or claimed) by our Members; and  
  • $1.9 million in matched royalties that are on hold.  

In addition, The MLC also distributed another $6.7 million in blanket royalties from previously unmatched or unclaimed 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 match rates for each month of usage we initially distributed in 2021 and 2022 now range between 88 and 92 percent, and our overall current match rate for all periods is above 90 percent. 

This month, we continued to distribute matched historical royalties for uses that took place between 2007 and 2017 (during the Phono 1 and 2 rate periods). As a result of reprocessing the remaining unmatched historical royalties that we began processing last year, we were able to distribute approximately $141k in historical royalties this month, plus interest, from a number of different digital services. Overall, we have distributed nearly 85 percent of the previously unmatched royalties for uses that took place during the Phono 1 rate period and more than 47 percent of the previously unmatched royalties for uses that took place during the Phono 2 rate period, for a total of more than $25 million dollars in historical royalties.   

As always, the matched historical royalties we distribute are clearly identified on the royalty statements we provide to Members, and we specify the usage month for these historical royalties just like we already do for blanket royalties.  

To catch up on the progress we’ve shared about historical unmatched royalties so far, you can find all the updates here. For more background information, you can read an overview here.