What Is Music Reports?

It started with an alternative to blanket licensing for television public performance rights.

Music Reports was originally established in 1995 to enable local television broadcasters seeking alternatives to the rigid blanket licensing structures offered by BMI and ASCAP. They developed an administration service that allows composers of television music to license their works to television stations directly. Later they expanded to also encompass performance, mechanical, and synchronization rights of all kinds and to provide services in every territory in the world.

Music Reports® is now a general-purpose music rights administration platform typically used by music licensees to administer licenses of all kinds, with a client base that includes Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora, and the like, but also Netflix, HBO, most of the U.S. television broadcast industry, as well as a wide range of other music platforms like TikTok, Snap, and other social platforms, Peloton, Equinox/Soulcycle and other fitness platforms, VR platforms, metaverse companies, etc.

Much like The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), Music Reports helps Songtrust members collect mechanical royalties in the U.S. and manage their multifaceted rights, licensing, and royalties. While Songtrust works with Music Reports for mechanical royalties, for some of their partners, they also deal with everything from software development to cue sheets, and they oversee Songdex, the world’s leading registry of music-related data points. (We’re talking more than a billion searchable details.)

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