Unclaimed Royalties
Type: noun
Pronunciation: /un-klaymd-ro-yal-tees/
Also spelled or known as: Missing royalties, Black box royalties, Unpaid royalties
What does Unclaimed Royalties mean? Royalties that have been earned and collected but hasn’t been paid to the correct rightsholder.
Unclaimed royalties are royalties that have been generated and collected by a CMO but hasn’t been paid to the correct rightsholder, they sit in “black boxes” because they are unmatched, unallocated, or tied to incorrect metadata.
This commonly happens when metadata is incomplete, songs are not properly registered, ownership conflicts exist, or identifiers such as ISRCs and split sheets are missing.
Organizations may temporarily hold these royalties before redistributing them according to their policies, the funds are typically distributed pro rata among the society’s affiliated members. Artists and publishers can reduce unclaimed royalties by properly registering songs, maintaining accurate metadata, and ensuring ownership information is up to date.
Unclaimed Royalties synonyms: Missing royalties, Black box royalties
Example sentence: “Thousands of dollars in unclaimed royalties were recovered after updating the song metadata.”
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