The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) will start paying out its unmatched and unclaimed US streaming mechanical royalties by market share in April 2027, beginning with January 2021 usage and moving one month at a time. For January 2021, the cutoff that counts is the database snapshot taken on or around February 10, 2027. As of mid-October 2026, that is under four months away.
The MLC announced the date at its September 29, 2026 Annual Membership Meeting, alongside more than $4.2 billion distributed since January 2021. For a self-published songwriter, the number that matters is smaller: the money tied to songs nobody claimed is about to go to those who already earn the most.
What does “market share” actually mean?
The Music Modernization Act makes The MLC hold unclaimed accrued royalties for at least three years, then distribute what is left “to rightsholders based on their relative market shares.” Unmatched royalties belong to a recording not linked to any song; unclaimed royalties belong to an identified song whose shares no Member has fully claimed.
The MLC will allocate the leftovers song by song, pro rata, per streaming service and offering, from actual distribution data, with statutory interest. Every song that earned royalties that month gets a proportional slice, so the biggest earners get the most. That is why independent writers and publishers complained, as Billboard reported in July 2021, that major publishers, who hold the biggest market share and have the best systems for keeping their songs matched, would benefit at the indies' expense.
The money tied to songs nobody claimed goes, in proportion, to the songs that already earned the most.
One floor: a publisher receiving these payouts must pay or credit its songwriters at least 50 percent of what is attributable to their works, whatever the contract says.
How much money is left?
The MLC expects the other 2021 months to be comparable. Digital Music News put the January figure at $6.3 million, $3.24 million of it unmatched, and reported that about $75.13 million in 2021 royalties is tentatively headed for market share distribution. The MLC reports a 94 percent average match rate across 2021 usage.
That 2021 money is separate from the original black box. On February 16, 2021, 20 streaming services handed The MLC $424,384,787 in historical unmatched royalties from before the blanket license. That historical pot is separate from the 2021 leftovers that start going out in April 2027.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Feb 16, 2021 | Streaming services transfer $424.4 million in historical unmatched royalties |
| Sep 29, 2026 | The MLC announces market share distributions and $4.2 billion paid to date |
| Feb 10, 2027 | Database snapshot (approximate) that sets the remaining January 2021 pool |
| Apr 2027 | First market share distribution: January 2021 usage |
| Then monthly | One further month of 2021 usage per distribution |
What should a self-published songwriter do before April 2027?
- Join The MLC. Membership is free. A self-administered songwriter joins as their own publisher; the help center says that without a publishing entity name, “you can use your current Member as the publisher on your works.” Writers with a publisher or administrator use the free Songwriter Hub instead.
- Register every song, one at a time in the Member Hub, by bulk template, or by CWR file. Include your writer IPI number if you have one, and add recordings to each work; The MLC says recording details help matching.
- Claim your shares of songs a co-writer or someone else already registered. Unclaimed shares are exactly the money that goes to market share.
- Match your recordings. The Matching Tool lists recordings The MLC could not link. Searching by ISRC returns exact results (use capital letters). Suggest only recordings that are really yours, or the match is rejected.
Mind the clock: registrations and claims typically process within 21 days and matches within about 30, not guaranteed, and changes count only once a monthly snapshot captures them. Working back from February 10, early January is the practical finish line for the January 2021 money. Later 2021 months follow monthly, and unclaimed shares, The MLC says, “can always be claimed by the proper Member.”
A distribution deal does not do this for you: The MLC's 2022 distributor portal only helps distributors flag unmatched releases. If your catalog went through the DistroKid sped-up takedowns, check every version is matched. For what each stream should pay in the first place, see our look at the Phonorecords V rate proposals; for how fake plays distort the pool everyone shares, see the Michael Smith streaming fraud case.