It’s imperative that the music publishing industry get its act together regarding metadata now! In this streaming age, telling organizations who you are and how to get in contact with you is key to you getting paid. Still, many artists’ failure to do this has resulted in over $2.5 billion of undistributed “black box income.” After the Music Modernization Act passed into Law on October 11, 2018, the U.S. Copyright Office designated the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) to begin implementation.

Beginning January 1st, 2021, the MLC will have 3 years to assign and allocate the current “black box” of unpaid royalties. Anything left unclaimed will be evenly distributed to the top publishers in the United States (Universal, Sony, Warner, BMG) based on their market share.

If you don’t want your money to fall into the hands of someone who didn’t contribute to your work, register with Digital Royalty Distribution so we can get your song metadata in top shape now and submit your claims. It is imperative that these issues be addressed so that all data is consistent, properly stored, and easily retrievable – not just for the MLC and digital mechanical royalties, but to expedite all sorts of licensing and royalty payments.