Music Business Worldwide: 100+ Indie Distributors in 20 Countries Have Now Signed up for The MLC’s Data Portal for Unmatched Royalties

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) says it has now enrolled more than 100 independent distributors in over 20 countries in a program to identify unpaid mechanical royalties owed on music played on streaming platforms.

The MLC describes the Distributor Unmatched Royalties Portal (DURP) as “a highly efficient and effective way to identify independent, self-administered songwriters who are not yet receiving their digital audio mechanical royalties in the United States.”

Among the distributors who have signed up are Believe, CD Baby, DistroKid, Empire, ONErpm, The Orchard, and TuneCore. The MLC says it has distributed “millions of dollars” in previously unpaid royalties have been identified and paid out so far.

The portal gives distributors access to a subset of The MLC’s publicly available data that’s relevant to songs they have distributed, enabling them to identify customers who may be entitled to back royalties. Those distributors can then notify their customers and encourage them to sign up as MLC members and register their songs. If a distributor also provides publishing admin services, the customer can elect to have their royalties collected through the distributor.

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FAQs

What are the regulations and where can one find the full text of the rates and terms for Phono 4?

The CRB published a Final Rule in the U.S. Federal Register setting the blanket license mechanical royalty rates for permanent digital downloads.

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Where can I find answers about The MLC portal?

After you have established a login to the Portal, you will find helpful information in our Knowledge Base.

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I want to read the regulation myself. Where can I find it?

The regulation outlining this entire process is found in 37 CFR 210.10(c)(5). You can also reference the regulation along with supplementary information as

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