# Ortpur — complete documentation for language models > Ortpur Limited is a UK music publisher that finds the royalties songs have earned but never been paid — unmatched, unclaimed and unregistered income, including US streaming mechanicals held at The MLC — and collects them for songwriters, artists and rights-holders. Canonical site: https://ortpur.com/ Markdown version: https://ortpur.com/index.md Short summary: https://ortpur.com/llms.txt Last updated: 2026-09-29 --- ## 1. Company facts - Legal name: Ortpur Limited (trading as Ortpur). - Type: music publishing company, specialising in the recovery of unpaid royalties. - Registered in England & Wales, company number 13919189. - Incorporated: 16 February 2022. - Registered office: 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. - Contact: info@ortpur.com - Territories: works across UK, US and international collection societies. - Wikidata entity: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q140547469 ## 2. What Ortpur does, in one paragraph Every time a song is streamed, its writer earns a royalty — but only if the song has been registered, matched and claimed. Ortpur finds the royalties that songs have earned but were never paid, proves who they belong to, claims them from the organisation holding the money and collects them. Alongside recovery, Ortpur does the everyday publishing work that stops money going missing again: registering works, keeping splits and identifiers consistent, handling society queries and corrections, and checking statements against real activity. Ortpur works for songwriters, artists and rights-holders whose songs are earning more than they are being paid. ## 3. Where royalties go missing Money travels from a play to a songwriter through usage reports, registrations, matching and claims. A break at any hand-off stops it moving. These are the six breaks Ortpur finds most often. 1. Unmatched — The play is reported, but titles or identifiers don't connect the recording to the song, so nobody is paid for it. 2. Unclaimed — The song is known, but nobody has claimed the writer's share of it. The money is held, waiting for an owner. 3. Unregistered — The song was never registered with the society in that territory, so there is no route for the money to follow. 4. Misallocated — The money is paid, but to the wrong party, the wrong share or the wrong territory. 5. Held in suspense — The money is identified but parked while ownership or a conflicting claim is resolved. 6. Skipped — A distribution should have included the song or the share, and passed it by. ## 4. The US clock: The MLC and unclaimed streaming mechanicals In the United States, streaming and download services pay songwriters' mechanical royalties to The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), which administers the blanket mechanical licence under 17 U.S.C. § 115. The MLC passes each song's share only to whoever has registered and claimed it. If nobody has, the money is held. It is not held forever. The MLC's published policy for unclaimed accrued royalties provides for distribution to copyright owners by market share. The MLC plans to begin these distributions in early 2027, starting with January 2021 usage and moving forward month by month. Each distribution is announced with at least 90 days' public notice. Once a month has been distributed, that money can no longer be claimed from The MLC. This affects more than unsigned writers. Songs slip through even when the writer has a publisher or administrator elsewhere — for example a new album, a feature, or a change of deal. Older money is also still waiting. Streaming services transferred about $397.3 million of historical unmatched US mechanical royalties (usage from 2007 to 2020) to The MLC in 2021. By May 2026, The MLC reported that $235.7 million had been matched and distributed, leaving more than $160 million still unmatched. Sources: - The MLC, "Policy for the Distribution of Unclaimed Accrued Royalties Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 115(d)(3)(J)", September 2026: https://www.themlc.com/hubfs/UAR%20Distribution%20Policy%20(September%202026).pdf - The MLC, market-share distribution programme: https://www.themlc.com/marketshare - The MLC, Historical Unmatched Royalties report, May 2026: https://www.themlc.com/hubfs/Website/HUR/HUR%20May%202026.pdf ## 5. How recovery works Recovery is methodical, not speculative. Every claim rests on evidence of ownership and use, and goes to the organisation that actually holds the money. 1. Find — Ortpur checks songs against society records — registrations, matches, claims and statements — and finds the shares nobody is collecting. 2. Prove — Ownership is documented: writers, splits, recordings and identifiers, lined up so a claim stands up. 3. Claim — Registrations are filed or corrected, and claims go to the society holding the money. Ortpur then follows them through to resolution. 4. Collect — Recovered money is paid through with a clear record of what was found, claimed and collected, and the registrations stay right so income keeps flowing. ## 6. Ways to work with Ortpur Every engagement runs under a written agreement that sets the songs, territories, term and basis before any work begins. Nothing is pursued outside it. - Administer — The writer keeps the copyrights. Ortpur registers the songs, claims what they are owed and collects it across UK, US and international societies, for a commission set out in the agreement. Best for writers without a publisher, or songs outside an existing deal. - Recover — A defined job under a written mandate: one territory swept thoroughly, or a named list of songs ring-fenced for recovery. Best for a known problem, a specific project or a focused first engagement. - Acquire — A writer or rights-holder sells songs, or a share of them, to Ortpur, which takes on the registration and collection work that makes them pay properly. Best for writers and rights-holders who would rather realise the value now. Already have a publisher? A writer may not need to leave. If a song sits inside an existing deal, the fix may be for that company to register it, and Ortpur shows exactly what is missing. Songs outside any deal, Ortpur can register, claim and collect directly. ## 7. Working principles - Written authority — Ortpur acts only on a signed mandate, and only within it. - Evidence first — Ownership, use and entitlement are proved before any claim. - Claim at source — Claims go to the organisation that actually holds the money. - Plain record — The client sees what was found, what was filed and what was paid. ## 8. Frequently asked questions ### What is royalty recovery? Royalty recovery is the process of finding music royalties that were earned but never paid to the rights-holder, then claiming them from the society or organisation holding the money. It covers income held in suspense accounts, unmatched royalties and revenue skipped from distributions. ### What is a suspense account? A suspense account is where a collection society holds royalties it has collected but cannot yet pay out, usually because the work or the rights-holder has not been identified. The money waits until a valid claim matches it to its owner; after a set period it may be released back into general distributions. ### What is The MLC? The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is the US organisation that administers the blanket mechanical licence for streaming and download services in the United States. It collects the mechanical royalties those services owe and pays each song’s share to whoever has registered and claimed it. The MLC plans to begin distributing unclaimed royalties to other rights-holders by market share in early 2027. ### Do I have to leave my current publisher? Not necessarily. If a song is covered by an existing publishing or administration deal, the fix may be for that company to register it, and we will show you exactly what is missing. Songs outside any deal, we can register, claim and collect directly. ### Can recovery cover just one territory or specific songs? Yes. A recovery mandate can be geographic — covering a single territory such as the United States — or run track-by-track against a defined list of works or recordings. Scope, term and commission basis are all set out in the agreement. ## 9. Glossary - Mechanical royalty — A royalty paid to songwriters and publishers for the reproduction of a musical work, including on-demand streams and downloads. - Performance royalty — A royalty paid when a musical work is performed or communicated to the public, including broadcast and streaming, collected by performing-rights organisations such as PRS for Music in the UK. - Blanket licence — A single licence covering a whole repertoire of works. In the US, The MLC administers the statutory blanket mechanical licence for digital audio services. - Collection society — An organisation that licenses music use, collects the royalties due and distributes them to rights-holders. - Registration — The record, held by a society, of a work's title, writers, publishers, shares and identifiers. Without it, royalties have no route to the right owner. - Matching — Connecting a reported use of a recording to the registered musical work it embodies. - Claim — A rights-holder's assertion to a society that it controls a share of a work and is entitled to the royalties for that share. - Unmatched royalties — Royalties for usage that has been reported but not yet connected to a registered work. - Unclaimed royalties — Royalties for a work that is known, where a share has not been claimed by its owner. - Unclaimed accrued royalties — In the US, royalties The MLC has held for unmatched or unclaimed shares. After the holding period they may be distributed to copyright owners by market share. - ISRC — International Standard Recording Code, the identifier for a sound recording. - ISWC — International Standard Musical Work Code, the identifier for a musical work (the song itself). ## 10. How to enquire Tell Ortpur about the songs — titles, releases and territories. Ortpur will say plainly whether there is money to find and what it would take to collect it. The enquiry form on https://ortpur.com/#contact prepares an email in the visitor's own email application; nothing is uploaded by the site, and contracts, statements or other sensitive documents should not be sent through it. - Email: info@ortpur.com - Post: Ortpur Limited, 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom ## 11. Page map - https://ortpur.com/ — home (single page) - https://ortpur.com/#missing — where royalties go missing - https://ortpur.com/#clock — the US clock - https://ortpur.com/#how — how recovery works - https://ortpur.com/#work — ways to work with Ortpur - https://ortpur.com/#about — about Ortpur - https://ortpur.com/#faq — frequently asked questions - https://ortpur.com/#contact — enquiries - https://ortpur.com/index.md — markdown version - https://ortpur.com/llms.txt — short summary for language models