From Idea to Impact: Five Years Later the DURP Expands to 100 Distributors and Pays Millions to DIY Artists

I am thrilled to announce having reached a new milestone in The Mechanical Licensing Collective’s DURP initiative, which I develop and lead to engage music distributors in our efforts to track down and pay unclaimed royalties to independent songwriters — the Distributor Unmatched Recordings Portal (DURP). 

As of today, my team has onboarded over 100 independent music distributors in 20 countries to help us find and pay out millions of dollars in unclaimed U.S. digital audio mechanical royalties to independent songwriters around the world. 

I am incredibly proud of the impact the DURP initiative has had on the livelihoods of independent artists who did not know these royalties existed. Many of whom I have had the opportunity to speak with directly and to guide them in the process of becoming MLC members. 

This announcement comes on a special day – December 6th. Five years ago, on December 6th, 2019, I was invited by the United States Copyright Office to Washington, D.C. to speak at its Unclaimed Royalties Study Kickoff Symposium at the Library of Congress. It was at this symposium where I offered my insights on the DIY music rights administration space and strategic recommendations on how the forthcoming mechanical licensing collective ought to go about developing innovative data and partnership initiatives to reach the DIY artist and small independent rightsholders sector of the global music industry in furtherance of its mandate of the Music Modernization Act of 2018. The next year, in 2020, I joined The MLC as its Head of Third-Party Partnerships and began the research and development on what has become the Distributor Unmatched Recording Portal (DURP), which is both a data insights and technical solution, and a global network of strategic partnerships. 

Today, the DURP has made it possible for many DIY independent artists and self-published songwriters to finally receive the royalties they’ve been owed for many years. I am beyond grateful to be in a role where my continued advocacy and support of independent artists can be put into action to effect real change and opportunities in the global music industry. 

Here’s to the DURP. 🥂