CMRRA distributes over $70 million in royalties to music publishers and self-published songwriters

TORONTO, Canada, June 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA), innovators in licensing and royalty collection for over 48 years, announced today their 2022 year-end fiscal results including distributing more than $70 million dollars to music publishers and self-published songwriters that the organization represents.

Overall distribution increased by 14% from 2021, primarily driven by a substantial growth in online streaming and audiovisual distributions, with an increase of over 15% for online distributions and a 16% rise in audiovisual distributions compared to 2021.  Distribution for International collections for 2022 saw a remarkable surge of over 570% compared to the previous year.

Highlights from CMRRA's 2022 distribution include:

• Total distributions: $70 million (14% increase in total distributions over 2021)
• Over 93% of distributions from digital music services
• 75% of distributions from online services (streaming and downloads)
• A 15% increase in online distributions over 2021
• A 129% increase in online historical/back-claims over 2021
• 18% of distributions from audiovisual services
• A 16% increase over 2021
• 570% increase in international collections over 2021

"We're thrilled to have processed and distributed over $70 million dollars of mechanical royalties to our music publisher and self-published songwriter clients last year," said Paul Shaver, President of CMRRA. "This outcome is a direct result of higher music consumption and improved rates in the marketplace as CMRRA, with the guidance of the Canadian Publishers Committee (CPC), continues to negotiate and push for fair compensation for the music publishing and songwriter communities. CMRRA is continuously innovating and making enhancements to better serve our clients.  Our clients are at the heart of everything we do, and their trust in CMRRA is truly humbling. Their invaluable support serves as the driving force behind CMRRA's ability to execute its core functions and deliver exceptional results. The accomplishments and progress we've made is a direct result of the expertise and passion exhibited by the team who go above and beyond to ensure that the needs of partners and the music community are met with professionalism and care."

CMRRA is focused on delivering continuous improvements for their clients, and just one of many initiatives tied to this goal is the introduction of an enhanced Electronic Song Registration Form. This alternative to CWR has been designed to improve customer service levels for clients and deliver quicker processing of song information.  With the introduction of this enhanced format, clients will benefit from the following features:

• Numerous system enhancements to matching algorithms and related repertoire processing to improve the automated ingestion of song registrations  
• Increased client service and transparency of data, as registered works will be processed more quickly, and more of the catalogue will be visible to clients via CMRRA Direct
• Extended set of fields to enable a broader range of data, including optional fields for performing right shares and US territory claims

About CMRRA
The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. (CMRRA), a SoundExchange company, represents the vast majority of the music publishers doing business in Canada. CMRRA licenses dozens of digital services including all of the major online music services operating in Canada. It licenses, collects and distributes royalties for the majority of songs recorded, sold and broadcast in Canada. For more information, please visit cmrra.ca.

SOURCE SoundExchange