United States · Mechanical (blanket streaming)
The MLC
What counts as black box here
Unmatched royalties (usage not linked to a work) and unclaimed royalties (work identified, owner share unclaimed) together form "unclaimed accrued royalties", tracked by monthly usage cohort. Disputed amounts are held separately.
Mini box
Lit: compartments used and exit chute(s).
Its rules
Runs under the US Music Modernization Act: unmatched mechanical royalties are held, then distributed by market share after a statutory wait.
- Rights it handles
- Mechanical (blanket streaming)
- Holds a pool?
- Yes, by cohort
- Evidence level
- Official quantitative
How it distributes money
How often matched money is paid out, and how members can find what's theirs.
- Payment cadence
- Monthly blanket distributions
- Data maturity tier
- A
How it handles unresolved royalties
How long money waits, when the clock starts, and where it goes if nobody claims it.
- Holding clock
- Statutory minimum ≥3 yrs; first cohort held >6 yrs
- Clock starts
- Usage month
- Exit chute
- Relative market-share distribution from Apr 2027, one usage month per calendar month, per DSP/offering, allocated down to songs, with statutory interest where due
- Late claims after expiry
- Not publicly disclosed
Lifecycle path
- 1
Collect
DSPs report usage and pay
Monthly
- 2
Match
Unmatched usage reprocessed
Ongoing
- 3
Claim
Unclaimed shares held; disputes apart
Ongoing
- 4
Hold
Statutory hold
≥3 yrs; first cohort >6 yrs
- 5
Redistribute
By relative market share
From Apr 2027
Published figures
$6.22m
Jan 2021 cohort still unresolved (11.55% of $53.88m pool) = $3.15m unmatched + $3.07m unclaimed
Source: The MLC cohort dashboard, Jan 2021 usage
From the original research
$47.55m
Jan 2021 cohort distributed (88.26%); $0.10m disputed
Source: The MLC cohort dashboard, Jan 2021 usage
From the original research
$519.8m
Pending end 2024: $273.8m unmatched + $225.2m unclaimed + $20.8m held
Source: The MLC, end 2024
From the original research
$260.5m
Blanket unclaimed end 2025 (6.2% of pools)
Source: The MLC, end 2025
From the original research
$26.2m
Held (disputed) end 2025
Source: The MLC, end 2025
From the original research
~90%
Current match rate after reprocessing (~85% initial)
Source: The MLC
From the original research
$239.96m
Historical (2007–2020) of $397.29m distributed (60.4%), Oct 2026
Source: The MLC historical royalties recap, Oct 2026
From the original research