Fair Trade Music releases a songwriters’ guide to the MLC unmatched royalties issue

Fair Trade Music International has released an educational video to help music creators understand and address the MLC unmatched royalty issue. In this two-minute animation, we explain how these unclaimed royalties came about and describe what each creator can do to check whether part of this $400m+ belongs to them.

The important message in this video is supplemented by an campaign page at the re-launched Fair Trade Music website. This page contains the full script, has links to additional resources and details the four steps that each music creator should follow. The website also includes educational material on other campaigns such as equitable streaming, buyouts, freedom to create and mechanical rates, as well as a copyright 101 primer for new songwriters.

The video was produced from a script by Martine Groulx and Marco Foley in collaboration with their fellow FTMI board members. It was animated by Collaboration Spéciale in Montréal and features a bespoke soundtrack composed by board member, Greg Johnston. The voice over is provided by Canadian singer, songwriter and CBC radio host, Damhnait Doyle with sound mixing by Grant Edmonds at thedarkstudio.com.

Please consider sharing this video and the campaign page to help spread the message. Let’s get these hundreds of millions of dollars back into the rightful hands of the music creators that earned them.

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Somewhere in the U.S. right now is a growing bank account currently containing more than $400m that belongs to songwriters from all over the world. This @FTMusicIntl video explains how it got there and how you might be able to claim your part of it. https://youtu.be/Q8m_gjU6XnU