Black box royalties: where unclaimed song money goes

MusicJet
October 29, 2026

Black box royalties are song royalties nobody can match to a writer. Where they go, the MLC’s April 2027 payout, and how to keep yours out.

Black box royalties are songwriting royalties that have been collected but can’t be matched to whoever wrote the song, so they sit unpaid and, eventually, get shared out to someone else. A signed split sheet template for every song is the simplest way to keep your money out of the black box. Most of it ends up there because of missing or messy paperwork, not fraud.

How money ends up in the black box

A stream or a gig gets reported. The money is collected. Then nobody can work out who’s owed it. Common reasons:

The song was never registered with a society or The MLC.
It was registered, but not all the writers were listed, or the shares don’t add up to 100%.
The name or title doesn’t match what the service or venue reported.
The recording was never linked to the song it’s a version of.
Nobody sent in the setlist for a gig.

Every one of those is fixable, and nearly all of them start with not agreeing and writing down who wrote what.

US streaming: The MLC’s first payout in April 2027

The MLC collects US streaming mechanicals (see mechanical royalties). When it can’t match the money, it holds it for at least three years.

In April 2027 it starts sharing out that unclaimed money for the first time, beginning with January 2021 and working through 2021 a month at a time. Each month’s leftovers go to songs that earned in that same month, in proportion to what they earned. So the songs already getting paid get more, and an unregistered song gets nothing.

There’s one protection for writers. Publishers and admin companies that receive this money must pass at least 50% of the songwriter portion to their writers.

The US Copyright Office studied the problem in 2021, as the Music Modernization Act required, and set out ways The MLC could find the owners of unclaimed money and reduce the amount that goes unclaimed.

UK gigs: three years to claim

PRS members have up to three years to claim live performance royalties, or seven for classical music.

In 2025 the Guardian reported that PRS was holding unpaid live royalties for about 106,000 performances, mostly pop gigs at small venues, because it couldn’t match setlists to songwriters. PRS disputes the report. Money that isn’t claimed in time is redistributed under PRS’s own rules, which the report said hurts smaller artists and venues.

How to keep your money out of it

Agree splits on the day. Fill in a split sheet before everyone leaves the session.
Register every song with your society, with every co-writer and their share.
Check US mechanicals are covered, either by The MLC directly or by a publisher, admin company or society that collects them for you.
Send in setlists after every gig.
Search the databases for your own songs once a year. If a co-writer registered a song without you, sort it out now.

The money that ends up in the black box doesn’t disappear. It goes to whoever was organised.

Next step

Fill in the split sheet template for your last few songs, then register them. For the full picture of who pays what, read music royalties, or browse our songwriting money guides.