FAQ
In MROC’s case, “winding down” means that we are paying out all royalties in preparation for closing the organization, likely by mid-2025. As a not-for-profit organization, MROC must follow certain steps prescribed in the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act in order to close the organization. We are currently working through those steps and, once completed, MROC will be dissolved.
MROC is continuing most of its usual activities, except for the registration of new performer mandates, until December 31, 2024, concurrent with our preparations to close the organization. To ensure there will be no lapse in the collection of royalties to be paid to performers, MROC continues to send relevant repertoire to the Canadian distribution system Crescendo and claims to foreign partners where distributions by those partners through the remainder of 2024 and into the first months of 2025 are dependent on those claims. And, MROC is continuing to distribute royalties to its represented musicians through December 31, 2024.
To further ensure that there will be no lapse in performers’ representation and their ongoing royalty collection and distribution once MROC ceases its ordinary activities December 31, 2024, MROC is arranging for the transfer of all mandates that it holds as of December 31, 2024, to another collective in the industry, ARTISTI. As part of this arrangement, MROC and ARTISTI will take care of the transfer of performers’ repertoire data to the ARTISTI system. However, performers have options to select another collective to represent them as described below.
MROC has been faced with challenges for several years due to a variety of factors: MROC’s relatively small base of high royalty earners; its position in the industry which already includes two other Canadian performer collectives; industry-wide declining revenues in recent years; among others. Looking to the future, the MROC Board could see that MROC’s financial position is not strong enough to continue for an indeterminate period of time. After thoroughly exploring several alternatives, including attempts to combine with one of more other collectives, the MROC Board ultimately determined that a wind-down is in the best interests of MROC’s Members and its represented performers. MROC therefore has taken this course as a last resort.
Performers will be able to choose the collective that will take over payment of their royalties after December 31, 2024. MROC is finalizing an agreement to transfer its mandates and related repertoire to another performer collective in Canada, ARTISTI, to ensure that there will be no lapse in representation for its performers after December 31, 2024.
However, MROC-represented performers (and any related agents) will have two opportunities to override the transfer of their mandate to ArtistI if they wish their royalties to be handled by another organization:
- Before December 31, 2024: they may terminate their mandates with MROC and sign with another collective effective December 31, 2024. The other Canadian options are ACTRA RACS and Re:Sound.
- After December 31, 2024 but before March 31, 2025: they may give ARTISTI notice that they wish to terminate their mandate with ARTISTI effective 15 days from the notice date.
MROC will release performer mandates as of December 31, 2024 which is the automatic renewal date for any MROC mandates that are expiring this year. Performers will be given an opportunity to notify us in advance of their wish to change their representative as of December 31, 2024 to a society other than ARTISTI and we will incorporate that into the various data systems, both domestic and international, used by the collecting societies to ensure the transfer is made as of December 31, 2024.
However, mandates will not be released before December 31, 2024. This end date for mandates has been chosen to allow for mandate and repertoire data to be modified to reflect the collective who will represent each performer after MROC in one consolidatedprocess, at a time when few distributions are underway, rather than sporadically throughout the coming months. This single transfer will allow for better coordination among the collectives of the data that must be amended and better ensure that performers’ royalties are not placed into conflict in subsequent stages of the distribution processes or directed to the wrong collecting society.
MROC will pay out royalties it receives up to December 31, 2024. Royalties remaining undistributed on December 31, 2024, (for example, because of unlocatable or deceased performers who are still entitled to royalties) will be forwarded to ARTISTI or whichever collective the performer has chosen to represent them.
MROC will continue to send claims to its foreign partners where distributions by those partners are dependent on those claims. This will allow continued collection of the royalties due to MROC’s performers from foreign partners until ARTISTI, or another collective, has taken over the repertoire data and can continue with claiming on the transferred performers’ behalf. Every effort will be made to ensure that performers will not miss out on the claiming of their foreign and domestic royalties while MROC transitions its mandates to ARTISTI. MROC will accept new royalties from both Re:Sound and its foreign partners until the end of December 2024 but, after that date, all royalties received that have not already been paid out will be transferred to the collective that will represent the performer after December 31, 2024.
MROC will transfer mandate and repertoire data to ARTISTI for those performers who do not end their mandates before December 31, 2024. Some limited historical payment data will also be transferred to ARTISTI where the data relates to open distribution periods and so are required to calculate any future payments or adjustments on that distribution period. The details of the data to be transferred will be worked out further as MROC and ARTISTI finalize their agreement regarding the mandates transfer. MROC will provide instructions to performers on any actions they need to take for the transfer of their data as these details are confirmed. MROC and ARTISTI are collaborating to ensure the transfer of performers and their data to ARTISTI will require minimal intervention from the performer.
Personal performer information that is not required for ARTISTI to perform its mandate will not be transferred. MROC will keep only data required for its own corporate record-keeping obligations under law and will maintain this data securely.
Performers who need their payment history and repertoire information will be responsible for downloading it from the MROC portal before the portal is closed, by end of June 2025.
For performers signing with a Canadian collective other than ARTISTI, a substantial portion of their repertoire will be available to that collective through Re:Sound’s centralized system. Performers should check with the collective they choose to determine what additional information they’ll need to provide to that collective.
If you are currently represented by MROC, you should do the following at this stage. We’ll notify you if there are additional steps to take later.
- Consider what you want to do with your mandate:
- If you do nothing, MROC will automatically transfer your mandate and repertoire to ARTISTI effective January 1, 2025.
- If you want to transfer your mandate to a different collective, you must notify us not later than December 31, 2024 by email to info@musiciansrights.ca.
- Visit the MROC portal for two very important reasons:
- to ensure your address and other information is up to date; and
- to register for direct deposit payments if you haven’t yet done so (and you have a Canadian bank account). After September, MROC will not issue any cheques. And, already in effect, MROC no longer issues cheques for amounts less than $100. Performers with no Canadian bank account should contact us at info@musiciansrights.ca to discuss other options.
- Keep your eye out for future communications from MROC: As we proceed with the payment of royalties and prepare for the transfer of information to ARTISTI, we may require a response from you. For example, we are modifying our portal to allow you to authorize the release of banking information to ARTISTI so that your direct deposit payments can continue without you needing to reregister your banking information with ARTISTI. We will notify you as soon as this authorization section is available for you to complete on the portal.
- Download any information from the MyMROC Account portal that you wish to retain for your records: The portal will be maintained ONLY UNTIL June 30, 2025. Only the following information required for ongoing distributions will be transferred to ARTISTI as part of our data transfer project:
- performer and representative/rightsholder contact information;
- repertoire data;
- information on transactions already paid for open distribution years; and
- banking information (if you authorize this release once the authorization function is available on the portal – see item 3 above)
If you have any questions about the wind-down plan or MROC’s operations during this wind-down period, please contact us at info@musiciansrights.ca.
