Unveiling the “Black Box”: Reclaim Your Earnings with ONE Publishing

Every year, millions of dollars in royalties seem to vanish into thin air without reaching their rightful owners: musical composers like you. At ONE Publishing, we’re committed to solving this problem and help you claim what is rightfully yours.

WHAT ARE “BLACK BOX” ROYALTIES? 

“Black box” royalties are royalties generated from the use of a song that were never paid to its rightful author, performer, or composer due to missing information or songs not being registered with a collection society. If you haven’t properly registered your songs, you’re likely missing out on the royalties that belong to you, leaving them unclaimed.

When you fail to claim your rightful royalties, this money goes into a black box, which is distributed among major or local after these “unallocated royalties” go unclaimed for a certain period of time.

Here are the most common reasons why royalties can get trapped in the“black box”:

1. Lack of registration with a CMO: Registering with a Collective Management Organization (CMO) is crucial for tracking and collecting publishing royalties. CMOs play a vital role in ensuring that songwriters and publishers receive their earnings. If you want to prevent your royalties from the black box you should join a CMO relevant to your genre and region.
2. Incomplete Sound Recording Registration: It’s essential to register all Sound Recordings that use your song. Some music usages may go unnoticed, leading to uncollected royalties. You should diligently track and report all uses of your music.
3. Incomplete Territory Registration:  Musical works registration may not be thorough in every country.. This can result in lost royalties in regions where the song is not properly registered. 
4. Conflicts Over Songs’ Shares: Clear and accurate splits of song shares among songwriters are vital. Conflicts or discrepancies in these splits can lead to delays in royalty payouts. Songwriters should establish and document song shares early on to prevent disputes.

HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?

The issue of unallocated royalties stems from a disruption in a complicated registration process. These can come from incorrect metadata, inconsistent song titles, unresolved split conflicts over a song, and more. By joining ONE Publishing, you’ll have the peace of mind knowing that all these potential issues are handled properly. We ensure that royalties belonging to our composers don’t end up in a black box.

To achieve this, we do the following:

• We file retroactive claims with global CMOs: Once a song is registered on our platform, we make sure there are no streaming platforms or CMOs withholding royalties for that song by claiming any owed amounts from past periods*.
• We ensure accurate matching: With our Smart Matching Technology, you can associate your song with as many ISRCs (unique identification codes for sound recordings and music videos) as you want with just a few clicks.
• We simplify catalog management: Our patented system allows the delivery of works to societies in an automated CWR format. This way, you can register your songs once in your ONE Publishing dashboard, and they will be registered with societies and partners worldwide.
• We resolve split conflicts: We ensure you collect the percentage you’re entitled to from each registered song.

Join ONE Publishing and start collecting, from day one, all the royalties that rightfully belong to you. Don’t let the value of your hard work end up in the black box!

*Each CMO has its own parameters on how much time to keep unclaimed royalties before they are distributed in a “market share” method to its members. Once that time passes in each CMO, the royalties will no longer be available to claim.