The Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, plans to begin distributing eligible unmatched and unclaimed digital mechanical royalties by market share in April 2027. The first distribution will address January 2021 usage, with subsequent distributions advancing through usage periods one month at a time.
The organization announced the timetable at its annual membership meeting. These are royalties that have remained unmatched to musical works or unclaimed by their owners, rather than a change to normal payments for correctly registered and matched songs.
Songwriters and publishers should review their catalogs now: register missing works, verify ownership shares, claim eligible works and propose matches between recordings and compositions. A recording appearing on a streaming service does not by itself establish that its underlying composition has been correctly identified for mechanical payments.
The MLC’s policy provides a holding period before market-share distribution. Funds tied to ownership disputes remain held rather than being included in this redistribution. Eligible remaining funds and associated interest are allocated using the applicable service and offering’s distribution data.
Timing matters. A later claim will not recover usage-period funds that have already been distributed through this process. Creators should distinguish this timetable from other historical royalty pools and check the MLC’s guidance for the particular money they are trying to claim.
For independent artists who also write their songs, the practical assignment is a catalog audit—not simply checking whether their distributor delivered the master recording.
Sources: MLC announcement; Market-share policy and frequently asked questions; Unclaimed royalties information