§1006 Entitlement to royalty payments

Summary

Requires that royalty money collected be paid to copyright owners whose songs or sound recordings were reproduced or made available during the payment period, as long as they file a claim using the required claims process. Two pools are created. 66⅔% of the money goes to the Sound Recordings Fund. From that amount, 2⅝% must be held in escrow for nonfeatured musicians and 1⅜% must be held in escrow for nonfeatured vocalists; each escrow is managed by an independent administrator chosen jointly by the copyright parties and the relevant union (or their successor). The rest of the Sound Recordings Fund is split so 40% goes to one group of interested parties and 60% to another group. 33⅓% of the money goes to the Musical Works Fund, with 50% of that for music publishers and 50% for writers. If the groups cannot agree on a voluntary split, a panel of judges will divide the money based on how much each recording or song was distributed or transmitted during the period.