Canada's CMRRA launches an international collection service for music publishers

By Emmanuel Legrand

The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) has launched its International Collections services, allowing members to collect mechanical royalties from the USA's Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) and through IMPEL, the international collections agency for independent publishers.

  CMRRA has joined as a member The MLC, which launched in the US on January 1, 2021, and is tasked with collecting mechanical rights from the online use of music. CMRRA said it will ensure that the repertoire of the publishers who sign up for MLC collection "will be properly registered so that past and future US digital mechanical royalties are flowing efficiently, in line with the same service levels we already provide for Canadian royalties." The MLC should deliver its first distribution in the second quarter of the year.

  CMRRA is also using the services of IMPEL on the collection of digital royalties for territories outside of North America on a go-forward basis. "CMRRA is working in phases to implement our international collections with IMPEL, and will begin with their Core Territories, which include the European Economic Area (including the UK and Switzerland) to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa," said the organisation in a message to members.

Provide more options

  In future phases, CMRRA will expand to include additional IMPEL territories, such as Latin America and India by 2022.

  CMRRA will be collecting digital mechanical royalties from the MLC and IMPEL. For the MLC, this includes royalties streaming digital services and downloads. For IMPEL, the mandate is broader, and encompasses standard DSP streaming and digital downloads, as well as audio-visual uses by Facebook and YouTube. 

  "We are thrilled to support the licensing of our clients’ songs within the global music ecosystem and happy to provide you with more options to support your royalty collections around the world. With over 45 years of publishing data administration, we are confident in our ability to claim and distribute your international royalties accurately and efficiently," said CMRRA President PaulShaver in a note to members.