What orphan songs can teach the MLC
With the Mechanical Licensing Collective recently receiving $424 and counting in black box royalty payments, a lot of questions are being raised about what the MLC can learn from orphan works, and what exactly ‘due diligence means when it comes to seeking out copyright owners.
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As you may be aware, The MLC recently received $424 million as payment of the “inception to date” unmatched mechanical royalties held at a number of streaming platforms, sometimes called the “black box.” Why do we have a black box at all? For the same reason you have “pending and unmatched” at record companies–somebody decided to exploit the recording without clearing the song.