The Mechanical Licensing Collective Receives $424 Million In Royalties From DSPs

Receives $424 Million In Royalties From DSPs

The MECHANICAL LICENSING COLLECTIVE ("The MLC") has received a total of $424,384,787 in accrued historical unmatched royalties from digital service providers (DSPs), together with corresponding data reports that identify the usage related to these royalties.  
 
A total of 20 DSPs separately transferred accrued historical unmatched royalties to The MLC as required in order for them to seek the MMA’s limitation on liability for past infringement. In addition to the accrued unmatched royalties transferred to The MLC, the DSPs concerned also delivered more than 1,800 data files, which contain in excess of 1.3 terabytes and nine billion lines of data.
 
The transfer of these monies represents the culmination of a months-long effort on the part of The MLC and these DSPs to develop and implement the specifications for these usage reports. With these historical unmatched royalties and usage reports now in hand, The MLC can begin the process of reviewing and analyzing the data in order to find and pay the proper copyright owners. 
 
Going forward, The MLC will provide additional information about historical unmatched royalties on a newly-created page on its website entitled “Historical Unmatched Royalties.” 

THE ARTISTS RIGHTS ALLIANCE weighed in with its own statement: “Today’s historic transfer of almost half a billion dollars in unmatched royalties to The MLC is a great start – but there’s a lot of work still to be done to get that money to the songwriters that earned it. We are grateful to the COPYRIGHT OFFICE team that skillfully and doggedly worked through a number of complex issues in the months leading up this transfer, including major disagreements about the proper treatment of past industry settlements. 
 
“In the months ahead we look forward to engaging further with the OFFICE about efforts by publishers who have already been paid for historical usages via settlement agreements to seek double payment out of these new funds. As we have told the OFFICE in our prior filings, the major publishers that already settled with digital services and received payment from them should not be allowed to claim a further share of the monies transferred to The MLC today.
 
“Today’s news is a huge step forward for songwriters – one made possible by so many stakeholders all across the music community who came together to work for passage of the MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT and continue to work in good faith as it is implemented.”

« see more Net News