International Collections FAQ

 CMRRA’s International Collections for digital royalties is a new offering to clients in 2021.

Royalties from IMPEL and the MLC will be included in our regular quarterly distribution cycle (occurring on the 15th of March/June/September/December). You can expect your royalty statements to include detailed share-by-share payment information.

Our administration fee for International Collections from IMPEL and MLC is 5% of the royalties collected. All terms are outlined clearly in the affiliation agreement for International Collections.

Note that there continues to be no up-front cost to affiliating with CMRRA.

If you’re already a member of the MLC directly, and wish to continue with that direct membership, you should not opt in to CMRRA's International Collections service for the USA.

Yes. If you wish to remove your direct membership with the MLC in favour of CMRRA collecting these royalties on your behalf, you are able to do so. You will simply need to complete any opt-out process with the MLC so as to avoid overlapping claims in their database. An overlap could create conflicts that would delay our ability to collect royalties on your behalf.

Yes, CMRRA will register your work ownership details with the MLC if you opt in for the USA. Note that our affiliation agreement requires you to confirm the status of your repertoire for all of the territories for which you are signing up. Please carefully review the details in section 4 of Schedule I - International Digital Collections, and the associated check box on the addendum that refers to full repertoire eligibility.

Members of the Harry Fox Agency do not automatically collect royalties from the MLC. Rights owners are required to opt in to collect royalties from the MLC, either as a direct MLC member or through a third party like CMRRA or HFA. If you have not opted in for HFA to collect on your behalf for this particular service, you can sign up with our International Collections service to collect your MLC royalties.

No, there is no conflict. SoundExchange is responsible for collection and distribution of royalties to artists and sound recording owners for performances of their recordings. This is separate from the MLC mandate to collect mechanical royalties for the publishing rights associated with the musical works.

No, there is no conflict. PPL collects and distributes money on behalf of performers and record companies for the use of their recorded music. This is separate from the MLC mandate to collect mechanical royalties for the publishing rights associated with the musical works.

No, there is no conflict. SOPROQ collects and distributes royalties from the public performance and reproduction of sound recordings and music videos. This is separate from the MLC mandate to collect mechanical royalties for the publishing rights associated with the musical works.

SOCAN also has an international collections business, including collections from the MLC.  You can be a client of either CMRRA or SOCAN for this purpose, but not both. If you have signed up with SOCAN for collections from the MLC or other International collections - for your reproduction rights specifically - then you should not sign up with CMRRA for this purpose. This would result in conflicts that would delay collection of your royalties.

Yes, CMRRA will register song ownership information on behalf of those clients who sign up for our International Collections service for the USA, and make claims to any royalties that exist for previously unidentified songs. There is a three year timeframe within which to make claims against these royalties, after which the payout of any remaining money for unidentified songs will be allocated according to a market share calculation.

You should only sign up for our International Collections service for territories in which you are not otherwise collecting royalties either yourself or via a sub-publisher. Please refer to section 4 of Schedule I of our affiliation agreement for further details.

• Switzerland, the United Kingdom and all states within the European Economic Area which includes Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Iceland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Norway, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece.
• Albania, Andorra, Bosnia, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, San Marino, Serbia, and Turkey
• Lebanon, Luxembourg, French Polynesia, Monaco, New Caledonia
• Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Gulf countries - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar
• Israel, Palestinian Territories, Yemen
• Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan

We are currently focused on implementing Phase 1 of our International Collections agreement with IMPEL. Expansion to Phase 2 territories will be confirmed at a later date, and is likely to follow in 2022.