International Mechanical Royalty Collections - with The MLC and CMRRA
Do you or your artist have music that is streaming in the United States on Digital Service Providers (DSPs) such as Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music? Do you have questions about mechanical royalties that are collected in the United States from such DSPs, and how they are flowing back to artists in Canada?
The MLC was launched on January 1, 2021, and began issuing blanket licenses to DSPs for downloads and streams, allowing for improved collection of the mechanical royalties from such recording uses in the United States. CMRRA works with global partners like the MLC to provide music publishers and self-published songwriters an option to facilitate international licensing and royalty collection.
This session will take a look at the modernization of royalty collections for mechanical royalties from streams and downloads, the flow of royalties from territory to territory, and best-practices for artists and teams to register with Canadian collective management organizations to collect their US earnings!
Presented with The MLC and CMRRA.
WEBINAR ACCESS
The event will take place via Zoom. We STRONGLY RECOMMEND you LOG IN to your Eventbrite account PRIOR TO THE SESSION to ensure you can find the event in your account and can access your Zoom link. You may be asked to download the Zoom software but will also be able to join via your browser, which may give slightly reduced functionality.
TICKETS
Registration is free. MMF Canada welcomes the attendance of non-members.
* Le webinaire se tiendra en anglais.
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is a nonprofit organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office pursuant to the historic Music Modernization Act of 2018.
In January 2021, The MLC began administering blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download services (digital service providers or DSPs) in the United States. The MLC will then collect the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs and pay songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers. The MLC has built a publicly accessible musical works database, as well as a portal that creators and music publishers can use to submit and maintain their musical works data. These tools will help ensure that creators and music publishers are paid properly.
Founded in 1975, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd is a music licensing collective representing music rightsholders who range in size from large multinational music publishers to individual songwriters. Together, they own or administer the vast majority of songs recorded, sold and broadcast in Canada. On their behalf, CMRRA issues licences to individuals or organizations for the reproduction of songs on various media, as described below.
Licensees pay royalties to CMRRA which we, in turn, distribute to our rightsholder clients. The royalty rates are determined pursuant to negotiated agreements or tariffs certified by the Copyright Board of Canada. CMRRA offers the following licensing and royalty collection services:
Mechanical licensing – for the reproduction of songs on CDs, vinyl, and similar physical products
Online music licensing – for the reproduction of songs for distribution as permanent downloads (e.g., via iTunes), limited downloads, on-demand streaming, and webcasting
Broadcast mechanical licensing – for the reproduction of songs by radio stations and satellite broadcasters
Private copying – for the collection of the private copying levy via the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC)
Audiovisual post-synchronization licensing – for the reproduction of songs already embedded in existing audiovisual content (e.g., music videos)