Check if any of the $656M in unclaimed royalties at The MLC is yours
Hi HN, I built this. Quick background on why it exists: When music is streamed on digital streaming platforms (think Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora), there are two separate royalty streams: one for the recording, paid through your distributor (DistroKid, TuneCore, CDBaby), and one for the underlying work (generally known as publishing). The work side's mechanical royalties are collected by The MLC, a nonprofit that was created by the 2018 Music Modernization Act (MMA). If you haven't registered your songs with The MLC, there are issues with your metadata, or about half a dozen other reasons,…
Check if any of the $656M in unclaimed royalties at The MLC is yours launched on August 20, 2026 with 77 votes, #533 of 23,274 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
Blackbox Checker helps musicians identify which of their recorded songs are unregistered or unclaimed at The MLC, the nonprofit that collects mechanical royalties from streaming platforms. Users paste a Spotify link to see which recordings are missing from The MLC's system and estimate potential lost earnings. The tool addresses a significant problem: The MLC currently holds over $656 million in unclaimed royalties that will be distributed to already-registered publishers if not claimed by January 2027, making registration urgent for independent artists and songwriters.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Paste a Spotify link and see which of your recordings are unregistered or unclaimed at The MLC, and roughly what that
See which of your recordings are unregistered or unclaimed at The MLC, and roughly what that's costing you. The MLC is holding $656M nobody has claimed. The first $6.41M of it, from January 2021, gets paid out to market share in The MLC's own figure for the oldest usage month still unmatched or unclaimed. It goes to the publishers and writers already collecting, in proportion to what they already collect, and once it has gone out it is gone. None of it reaches you unless your name is on the work. The MLC has said it starts in January 2027, and their January distribution date is the 14th, so that is where the clock runs. Linked to a work at the MLC with every share claimed. Nothing to do…from pub.doub.ly
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, I built this. Quick background on why it exists: When music is streamed on digital streaming platforms (think Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora), there are two separate royalty streams: one for the recording, paid through your distributor (DistroKid, TuneCore, CDBaby), and one for the underlying work (generally…
Does a similar job
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