Most artists (and even some labels) have no idea what a mechanical license is. Most likely, Spotify isn’t paying it to you.
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Jeff Price is one of the music industry’s foremost experts on music copyright and artist royalties. He was a cofounder at Tunecore and more recently started a company called Audiam, which is focused on mechanical rights licensing and collection and was acquired by SOCAN back in 2016.
He’s also a huge critic of Spotify and the recently-passed Music Modernization Act (MMA). That’s probably a gross understatement.
One reason is that there’s actually another streaming royalty that is owed to most artists and songwriters — they just don’t know about it. In our latest Digital Music News Podcast episode, Jeff explains the sordid history of how this happened. But he also explains how to set yourself up to get paid on potentially years of unpaid royalties.
“So if any of you are out there listening to this, you’re like, ‘Wait a second, you’re telling me that I wrote a song and I recorded my own song. I went to Distrokid or CD Baby or Tunecore, and they distributed this into Spotify. And I know it’s streamed, because I’m getting money from CD Baby, Tunecore, or Distrokid. You mean there’s a second royalty that is owed to me, that wasn’t given to CD Baby, Tunecore, or Distrokid?'”
“The answer is yes, there is a second separate royalty owed to you that Spotify was supposed to pay. And then if you’re like, ‘Why am I not getting it?’ And the answer is because this ties into the MMA, the Music Modernization Act.”
Price blames the glaring omission on corrupt legislators and shady music companies. He says this is criminal — but he also knows how to navigate the complexities of both the MMA and the agency it created.
That agency, called the Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, is tasked with disbursing mechanical royalties to songwriters and publishers. It all sets sail in early 2021 — which means the smaller artist, label, and publisher can get paid. As long as they know how to play this game.
So how do you find out how to claim your missing royalties, and more importantly, get paid?
Here’s everything you need to know in our latest podcast.
Check it out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or below.
Spot-A-Lie Steals BILLIONS from independent musicians
They steal BILLIONS from industry musicians too
If the Music Monopoly knew how much money they steal
They would shut it down today!
Billions and Billions
Don’t believe me
Pretend the water company in your city
Kept your water meter at downtown at the treatment facility
When ever the city needed money …
That’s Spot-a-lie
Ask Eminem
Hey Music Monopoly
Do they show you the info on artists that do well
They are pilfering us
They take your good music you made (and foolishly stream on Spot-A-Lie) send you a licencing request send your music to someone signed with spotify and stop paying the artist they they hide your work from you and you never get a check for the licence they take out
Money gone
They are scalping us
Billions of lost profit
I’m small time
But there are lots of me
We Independents
The least I could ask is to be stolen from by an American Company
It’s double the humiliation from these limp European crooks
On Google Play I started out well over 900 downloads my first month Then next month
0
Next month
0
Then another account popped up My name And a copy of an old photo I used to use No music No website
Next month
0
Then another dummy account popped up
Exact same dummy of me
Years like this new dummy accounts no numbers…
Then Google Play went out of business
They said no need to take your music down
But for months it’s still up there
(I took it down But it’s never taken down I found another one of my removed albums still up there just listed on page 4 on search results) And still available for sale… (Even though I made it for free)
click on it…still streaming…
I receive no money
No numbers
Because Google Play is out of business right!?!?
Then I receive a request to join You Tube Music
So Lyor Coen can steal from me and hide my numbers from me
To prop up Billie Eyelash…..
To then be robbed by Grammy
You Tube Music is just as bad We have had numbers toppled back on views and likes we can’t trust anything we get. Once we had live streamed for days they said we had 5 viewers with an average listening time of 5 hours lol 5 hours
You can’t trust the data
We’ve had people unsubscribed too it’s outrageous what is going on just robbery.
You Tube is the WORST the absolute worst but spotify defies reality
They make the value of your music nothing so you look and feel like an idiot if you want to know what your numbers are or demand your money…
ok mam here is your nickel
Play the game
You mean signing up for all the international equivalent to ASCAMP Or BMI
To get Royalties Pay each individual company Why do I pay Harry Fox then? Why join BMI?
Every country they stream in they hide your numbers they hide your accounts you don’t know what is where We recently left Apple Music and wouldn’t you know they said we were down in America. That was odd legal speak so we looked and we were still streaming over seas. We have not seen a dime and we do not receive numbers but we’re still streaming in Algeria or what ever. This has been for about 2 years
My favorite is Apple
They said we had 1 stream for 5 cents
Then they said nothing for a year because obviously I suck and no one is listening right?
Well strike that because Apple has requested to take a licence out on my lyrics of my music until 2099
2099
I mysteriously got one from Tik Toc for licencing we denied the request because we have NO accounts with them…Then a month later CD Baby sends us a letter saying something like we are putting your music up On the ChiCom site for you aren’t you lucky we recently left CD Baby
Funny thing I have an older account with them and it’s great. I Get numbers regularly but this new account is dead
You got someone to help explain from TUNECORE Jesus I got stories about there thievery for days
I tried them all and all stole lied there is no place to go left
Wait For The Market To Crash
Never Sign
I founded TuneCore in 2006 and ran it as CEO until 2012. I left the company in eight years ago and Im very saddened to say I can no longer support it. DistroKid is head and shoulders above it. I cannot recommend TuneCore any longer. And it makes me sick.
Tunecore hasnt even paid me at all. im pissed
CAUTIONARY NOTE TO INDEPENDENT SONGWRITERS AND SMALL PUBLISHERS:
This article is factually incorrect in almost every regard and you should be wary of sales pitches that disguise themselves as educational material. Before you start another battle that someone else will profit from, here a few quick facts:
1. The “mechanical” royalty is far from secret. It was the centerpiece of the Music Modernization Act that copyright owners and streaming services worked on collaboratively for years. It resulted in the streaming services writing a check to the MLC (a publisher run organization) for over $60 million dollars to help fix the data problem that prevents accurate mechanical royalty payments. The MLC launches in 2021.
2. If you are interested in collecting mechanical royalties, reach out to Music Report or HFA. The streaming services pay them to manage your mechanical royalties and they should be paying them out to you without charging an admin fee (since the streaming services already pay the admin cost). Beginning in 2021, the MLC will take over this work. They have a large operating budget and you have the right and responsibility to ask the MLC how they will improve matching and royalty payments.
3. Jeff Price speaks out against the MMA because he wasn’t chosen to run the MLC and because (as he once told me) the confusion caused by MMA has caused it to “rain business” for him because songwriters think they need an intermediary like Audiam to help them collect royalties in the new regime. So here he (again) tries to create more chaos and confusion so that he can convince you to let him solve the problem for 7% of your royalties. You may want to reach out to HFA, Music Reports, and/or someone at the MLC before making the decision to add another intermediary between you and your money.
4. There are other major obstacles to royalties reaching songwriters that are not talked about often enough because they implicate fellow copyright owners and we typically try to protect our own. However, record labels are taking the majority of the royalties for streaming and the publishing royalties that are paid out go through so many intermediaries (publishers, PROs, and other aggregators) who aren’t the best at identifying small songwriter catalogs, so money is bled out through that process.
Do your homework folks!
tired-of-fake-news, you are correct.
Spotify doesn’t pay artists directly for mechanicals. Depending on where the music is streamed, the money is sent to the society for that country or area. For US streams via Spotify, it’s the Harry Fox Agency. Amazon sends their mechanical royalties from US streams to Music Reports.
Collecting mechanicals outside the US is tricky or cumbersome for indies, and that’s why services like Audiam, Songtrust, and others have popped up to register your titles with foreign societies and collect mechanical and publishing royalties. Jeff Price is helping to solve a problem for indie artists.
What’s disappointing is Resnikoff’s ongoing hatred towards Spotify along with his propaganda campaigns against them. It’s unnecessary. Then you have the comments from people who have never published music or have no fan base or listeners. They don’t know how the industry works. You can’t argue with them because they’re so fucking stupid.
I thought Music Reports was going out of business?
No, Jeff Price was speaking out against it before the people were chosen to run it.
this is correct. The bill (now law) really does not fix the problem and allows artists money to be taken from them and handed the board members of the organization responsible for paying them.
Thats just no right.
In the US Spotify (all all interactive streaming services) are required to pay the Self-Published Songwriter, Publishing Administrator or the Reproduction Rights collection agency their mechanical royalties directly.
MRI and HFA are hired by Amazon and Spotify as a back office to pay the Self-Published Songwriter, Publishing Administrator or the Reproduction Rights collection agency their mechanical
An I adamantly agree with you that its vital all get the needed information in order to make informed decisions. Propaganda is not good!
The information you are providing is just factually incorrect. I do not know if this due to you not having the information or due to your dislike for me.
Jeff Price (me) is angry because he believes music has value and if you want to use it get a license, make an equitable payment and the entity that earned the money should be paid the money.
However in the MMA in section (11) Legal Protections For Licensing Activities, sub-paragraph (E) Preemption Of State Property Laws it reads as follows:
“(E) PREEMPTION OF STATE PROPERTY LAWS—The holding and distribution of funds by the mechanical licensing collective in accordance with this subsection shall supersede and preempt any State law (including common law) concerning escheatment or abandoned property, or any analogous provision, that might otherwise apply.
The language allows the potential billions of dollars of earned but unpaid songwriter royalties to be taken from their rightful owner and end up in the pockets of the major and large music publishing companies in the United States.
In other words, the board of the MLC does not need to use the MLC and can recommend that other people’s money be taken from them and handed to themselves.
You bet that makes me angry. It’s not right.
In regard to intermediaries, I 100% agree. No artist should use any entity unless that entity can provide it true value.
That said, if you like, I invite you to have a live web chat with me to be recorded and rebroadcast to discuss these issues as well as allow you the opportunity to express your concerns to me directly.
Please let me know
Jeff
I think that provision pertains to laws where you have to turn over funds pertaining to uncashed checks to the states. In other words, if the MLC issues a check to a songwriter, and that songwriter doesn’t cash the check after a certain period of time, state escheating laws would require the MLC to turn over those funds to the state in which the songwriter resides, were it not for this provision. And good luck getting your money from the state after that happens.
MMA does certainly contain provisions that allow for unmatched royalties for indie songwriters to end up in the pockets of major publishers based on their market share. And that’s definitely a bad thing. But I don’t think this is the provision that does that.
were it only that I could upvote this to the top of the comments section
Jeff, when you say (regarding our distributor data) then we can go on the ‘other side of the fence’ Do you mean that our distributors will start to include MLC payments and data, or that we’ll have to log in separately to MLC and get paid through MLCs system?
HI Steven
You should look at your sound recording statement from your distributor that shows how many streams there were of your sound recording. Then you should look at your mechanical royalty statement and see if its for the same number of streams.
How the MLC gets you this data (if you choose to use it, you dont have to) is not clear.
Hi Jeff,
If your message is genuine, why deliver it in the context of misstatements and sensationalism that DMN presents in this article. Articles like this promote distrust and extreme reactions between parties that should be working together. Maybe post on your own next time?
Copyright owners and tech should have evolved into mutually beneficial partners and joint innovators by now. I’m disappointed by the continuing war machine and this type of presentation doesn’t help the cause.
P.S. I’m jealous that you work for yourself. If I did, I’d be happy to discuss directly.
If there is a factual error I ask you point it out. I too agree that the reality of the situation comes across as sensationalist. Truth is stranger than fiction in some cases.
The traditional music industry is not about tech, they are about creating culture in the form of recorded music and monetizing the fame. They could no easier make a smart phone than Apple could write “Hotel California”.
The obfuscation works to the advantage of the entrenched legacy industry. Lots of money earned by other people that dont even know it that they take.
This is not hyperbole, its fact and has been occurring around the world for the last 90+ years via the music rights organizations in other countries (black box distributions). The MMA imports the black box concept into the US and goes a step further, it makes it legal to steal other people’s money.
There was no need for that to be in the bill. It was put there for one reason only.
I am open to speaking if I can be of help or provide more context or information.
Please feel free to email me at [email protected] and I will make sure to respond
Jeff
You have to wonder why the musicians didn’t try to save the music business by actually doing something! How about them creating their own Platform where they, the musicians control the business of music by eliminating all these dubious middle men who have been lying and cheating us for so many decades. Maybe a $5 donation from every musician and they could have their own Spotify? Of course not much chance of that ever happening!