CMRRA may offer you the opportunity to enter into the Standard MLA Format if you meet the following requirements:
(a) Credit Requirement: You must be in good standing with CMRRA. You will be required to provide us with basic corporate information, including your certificate of incorporation, business registration, name of jurisdiction and the names, addresses and contact information for the proprietors and/or officers of your company.
(b) Administrative Requirement: You must be able to produce error-free royalty statements in one of the two standard electronic formats outlined in either MLA. You must demonstrate that your royalty system can adequately track sales and royalties owed as well as the handling of reserves, returns, free goods and promotional units. You must be able to deliver a report of all unpaid royalties (also referred to as pending list or unlicensed record list) on a quarterly basis, no later than 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter. As part of our review process, you will be asked to provide a test file for your royalty statements, publisher summary and a complete pending list.
(c) Volume Requirement: You should be able to demonstrate that your use of CMRRA-represented songs will account for a minimum of $1,500.00 in quarterly mechanical royalties payable to CMRRA. To assess this information, you will be asked to provide CMRRA with information such as sales projections, release and song information or business plan.
(d) Security Deposit: In addition, you will be asked to place a non-refundable security deposit with CMRRA against the payment of royalties. This deposit will be maintained for a minimum of four consecutive calendar quarters, until we are satisfied that you have met all your obligations under the MLA. You must, for example, be timely in submitting licence applications, signing and processing licences and delivering accurate royalty statements & payments. Once we are satisfied that you can live up to these obligations, the security deposit will be refunded or credited against future royalties payable to CMRRA. If we are not satisfied with your creditworthiness, or your ability to meet the requirements of the MLA, we may ask you to obtain licenses pursuant to the ‘pay-as-you-press’ method. The security deposit is usually the equivalent of one quarter’s worth of royalties payable to CMRRA.
(e) Advance against Royalties Payable: If your products are already on the market and royalties have accumulated for songs that are not licensed, you will be asked for an advance payment against the royalty payable. The advance can be recouped against your first quarterly accounting to CMRRA once the MLA has been signed.
