What are historical unmatched royalties?

We recommend using the Matching Tool in The MLC Portal, which allows Members to check for any unmatched usage that may be associated with works registered in their catalog and to submit those match suggestions for review.

This ensures you'll collect the royalties you're owed for your work(s). Matching works also creates cleaner and more robust data, which helps ensure royalties get paid out more efficiently. Click here to check out a 7-minute tutorial of The Matching Tool for more information.

The MLC began distributing these royalties on June 14, 2022.

The MLC first began distributing royalties from five DSPs: Deezer, Hoopla, Pandora, SoundCloud and Tidal on June 14, 2022.

The matched royalties distributed from these DSPs were for uses that took place during the Phonorecords II rate period (i.e., between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017).

Over the next several months, The MLC expects to distribute additional matched royalties from other DSPs for uses that took place during the Phonorecords II period. Once the Copyright Royalty Board issues final rates for the Phonorecords III period, we will be in a better position to estimate when we can begin to distribute royalties for uses during that period.

The historical unmatched royalties may date back to when each digital service provider (DSP) began operations in the United States. You can find the usage start date for each DSP by clicking the hyperlinks on this page.

Royalty rates and terms are determined by the U.S. Copyright Office's Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) through "rate proceedings" that occur every five years.

The MLC currently applies rates and terms established by the CRB's Phonorecords II determination pending the outcome of the CRB's remand proceedings on the Phonorecords III determination.

The Phonorecords II rates and terms can be found in full here. Members of The MLC will also have access to more specific rate calculations for each DSP within The MLC Portal.