This article is Part 3 of a five-part series on inheriting music rights and royalties. Here is a list of all the articles in the series:
- Part 1: What Heirs Need to Know
- Part 2: Identifying What the Decedent Owned
- Part 3: How to Locate and Claim Royalties
- Part 4: Maximizing Royalty Income
- Part 5: When to Hire a Publishing Administrator
Establish Authority
Performing rights organizations, publishers, labels, and royalty administrators will require proof of authority to act on behalf the decedent. In most states, these are usually Letters of Authority or Letters Testamentary issued by the probate court when a fiduciary is appointed. If the copyright is held by a trust or another entity like a corporation, alternative documentation may be required. In the case of an authorship interest, this is usually an inalienable individual right, so a probate estate would need to be opened for the decedent even if they had planned their estate.
Locate Performing Rights Organization Accounts
The first place to look for music income is the performing rights organization (“PRO”). In the United States, most professional songwriters are affiliated with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Artists are usually affiliated with only one PRO.
ASCAP and BMI maintain a joint database of musical works, writers and performers called Songview (www.songview.com). In Songview, you will be able to determine the attribution percentages and publishers of each work in the PRO’s repertory.
Once the PRO affiliation is confirmed, follow the PRO’s estate claim procedure. This typically involves submitting proof of death, letters of authority, estate EIN, and a processing fee. It may take the PRO several months to update their records and redirect the royalty income. Once their process is complete, the PRO usually provides information on how to create an account on their website to view royalty statements, update payment information, and track expected income.
It should be noted the PRO may give you the option of transferring the account directly to the heirs or beneficiaries instead of the estate fiduciary. This may save substantial time and money if the estate does not need to collect royalty income to pay debts or other expenses.
If the decedent was not affiliated with a PRO, locating performance income becomes more complex. Works may have been self-published, registered under a pseudonym, or credited to a publishing entity rather than the individual. Songwriters who generate significant performance income are usually affiliated with a PRO, so the absence of an affiliation may indicate that little performance revenue was being collected, although exceptions do occur.
Claim Mechanical Royalties
In the United States, digital mechanical royalties are administered through the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). The MLC collects royalties from digital streaming services and distributes them to the copyright owners or their publishing administrators, provided the compositions are properly registered in its system.
Mechanical royalties are also generated outside the United States when music is streamed, downloaded, or reproduced in other countries. These royalties are typically collected by foreign mechanical rights societies. This income is not automatically remitted to the MLC or your PRO, so registering with various foreign mechanical rights societies may be necessary if the work generates significant foreign mechanical income.
Claim Digital Performance Income
If the decedent performed on sound recordings, particularly as a featured artist, check SoundExchange for unpaid royalties. SoundExchange collects royalties for certain non-interactive digital public performances of sound recordings.
Use SoundExchange’s unclaimed royalties database to search for the decedent’s name. If funds are located, follow SoundExchange’s estate claim process to submit documentation and redirect payments.
Search State Unclaimed Property
If royalty payments were not claimed for a period of time, the administering organization may have transferred the funds to a state unclaimed property program. PROs are usually required by law to remit dormant funds to the state after a statutory holding period.
For this reason, it is often worthwhile to search the unclaimed property databases for the state where the decedent lived, as well as states where publishers, labels, or royalty administrators are located. These databases are publicly searchable and may reveal royalty payments that were never successfully delivered to the decedent.
If funds are located, the estate will typically need to submit proof of death and probate authority in order to recover the property.
Claiming Publishing Royalties
If the decedent owned the copyright in a musical composition, the estate may also be entitled to the publisher’s share of certain royalty streams, commonly referred to as publishing royalties.
f the decedent retained the publishing interest rather than assigning it to a third-party publisher, the estate may need to register or claim a publishing entity with the relevant performing rights organization in order to collect the publisher’s share.
Once the ownership records and publishing entity are updated, the publisher’s share of royalties can be redirected to the estate or its successors.
Conclusion
Once the decedent’s ownership interests are identified, the next step is locating the organizations that administer the associated royalty streams and updating their records. Performing rights organizations, the Mechanical Licensing Collective, SoundExchange, and other administrators each control different types of royalty income, and each requires documentation before redirecting payments. This can be a long and tedious process lasting months or years.
In Part 4, we examine how to maximize royalty income.
Christian Carson
Christian Carson is the founding attorney of Carson Law Firm LLC in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds degrees in law and accountancy from Case Western Reserve University. With a strong background in accounting and finance, Christian focuses on real estate, probate, and business law. He is committed to providing practical legal solutions for individuals and small business owners.
