What's the Story on Music Repoorts, Inc. ??

[tomyco]

I've been receiving e-mails from Music Reports Inc. for me to register my songs with them. I think they are an Apple Publishing company. Are they legit? Anyone have experience with them, good or bad. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

[RPaul]

I've been receiving e-mails from Music Reports Inc. for me to register my songs with them. I think they are an Apple Publishing company. Are they legit? Anyone have experience with them, good or bad. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

I don't think Music Reports is owned by Apple. I've gotten a few small (read "TINY") checks from them over the years for uses of my music. For example, the most recent ones have been in the 20-30 cents range for payments from Amazon Music Unlimited. (However, in 2021, Amazon will be paying mechanicals in the USA through the Mechanical Licensing Collective.) There have been other companies whose uses of my songs have been paid through Music Reports, as well.

Essentially they handle licensing of music on behalf of a number of different types of companies that use music. Some examples I see in my "signed contracts" folder include Peloton, Twitch, Snap, TikTok, and more. (Pandora was there, too, but they're also going to be using the MLC in 2021.) Of course, you only make actual money through them if your songs get used. Just because Peloton can use my songs in their exercise stuff doesn't mean any of their customers will actually hear my songs. I think the payments I've gotten through them all originated with a few cellphone companies and Amazon.

I don't think I've technically registered songs with them. Rather, they seemed to already have my songs, probably due to their getting requests from their clients then figuring out who the copyright owners were from ASCAP searches or similar. I have occasionally had to correct their splits information, for example if they showed my owning 100% of a song that I collaborated on.

Bottom line is they are legit, and some companies that use music do at least use them for access to independent music (and such uses can turn into royalties -- my payments have been tiny, but a collaborator I was talking with a couple days ago had payments up in the hundreds of dollars, so it just depends on the uses). I may possibly have also added some songs to my catalog there at times, but most songs in their catalog were added by someone other than me.

Rick

[tomyco]

I get these e-mails every so often, this was an old one. I wanted to give a better understanding of my original question.

MUSIC REPORTS

Dear Publisher,

Please follow the links below if you own or control copyrights in lyrics and/or musical compositions embodied in sound recordings and would like to license these rights to Apple for (1) Apple Fitness+, (2) Videos in connection with Apple Music and (3) use of Lyrics with Apple products and services.

- For the Apple Fitness+ license agreement: https://www.musicreports.com_offers-applefitness+
- For the Videos and Lyrics license agreement: https://www.musicreports.com_offers-applemusic

These agreements are direct agreements between you and Apple. The Video and Lyrics license agreement is also being made available to you to sign through HFA, however you only need to accept the agreement once.



Sincerely,

Music Reports Audio Services

[RPaul]

I get these e-mails every so often, this was an old one. I wanted to give a better understanding of my original question.

MUSIC REPORTS

Dear Publisher,

Please follow the links below if you own or control copyrights in lyrics and/or musical compositions embodied in sound recordings and would like to license these rights to Apple for (1) Apple Fitness+, (2) Videos in connection with Apple Music and (3) use of Lyrics with Apple products and services.

- For the Apple Fitness+ license agreement: https://www.musicreports.com_offers-applefitness+
- For the Videos and Lyrics license agreement: https://www.musicreports.com_offers-applemusic

These agreements are direct agreements between you and Apple. The Video and Lyrics license agreement is also being made available to you to sign through HFA, however you only need to accept the agreement once.



Sincerely,

Music Reports Audio Services

As I mentioned in my initial response, Music Reports really just helps other organizations clear rights -- Apple in this case. I got a similar notification from from them on December 23rd, though it also included a notice that iTunes Match was moving to using the MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) this year. I haven't actually gotten around to checking out the Apple agreements, but I have signed agreements I suspect would be similar. For example, it wouldn't surprise me if the Apple Fitness+ could be similar to Peloton in the sense that it is using music for exercise purposes. The Videos and Lyrics thing might be different.

With each agreement Music Reports provides, you really do have to look at the specifics of the agreements. While I've signed most of the ones they've sent, there have also been a few I did not sign because the terms were not acceptable. (For example, one was letting a service use your music for no money at all -- just "promotional value". I don't recall which specific service that was at this point.)

Rick