IMPORTANT – The new Claims Website is now live and fully operational. Rightsholders now have the ability to submit claims online, through our secure portal, as well as the ability to track each claim’s status and history.
Currently, the Claims Website provides information related to undistributed royalties associated with post-2012 Canadian releases that have been paid into the Licensing Trust by Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada, and Warner Music Canada for the 3Q2013 through 2Q2015 sales period.
While anyone can review the content of the Claims Website, rightsholders need to register for a User Account before they can make a claim. Before registering for a User Account, please read the following guidelines:
- If you are an author, composer, music publisher or collective society represented by SODRAC in Canada, SODRAC is the party entitled to claim your portion of the royalties on your behalf.
- If you are an author or a composer signed to a music publishing agreement applicable to Canada, and not otherwise represented by SODRAC, your Canadian music publisher is the party entitled to claim your portion of the royalties on your behalf.
- If you are a self-published author or composer or a music publisher, and not otherwise represented by SODRAC in Canada, you need to register for a “Publisher” user account to make a claim. If you have not previously registered this type of account with CSI, we will create one for you when you first submit a claim. The claim submission form will provide further instructions on filling out the form.
- If you do not fall within any of the above three categories, you need to register for an “Other” user account. This category is intended for users who act on behalf of multiple rights holders (such as a law firm or management company who represent different clients, etc). Your ability to submit and review your claims will be restricted to the client account you have selected on your home page. Note that, in order to change the selected account to view share information specific to a particular publisher/writer, and to then submit claims for that account, you need to select the appropriate radio buttons next to the accounts on your home page and then the “Save” button after making your selection.
When submitting a claim, you will be required to attest that your claim is valid and that you, or another party acting on your behalf, have not already received payment for your ownership share of the work(s) in question in relation to the recording(s) in question. In addition, you may be required to submit additional documentation to support your ownership claim in the works in question.
It’s important to remember that musical works are often divided between many ownership shares and that while royalties for some shares have not been paid, royalties for your share may have been paid to you or to your business associates, such as to your publisher, sub-publisher, co-publisher, SODRAC or previous administrator. For this reason, it is important that a thorough verification of your books and records, as well as inquiries with your business associates, be conducted prior to making a claim to an item on the pending list.
CSI will validate all claims submitted by registered class members against its own records prior to approving the claim for payment to the rights holders in question.