After three years, EU law lets societies treat money they could not pay as non-distributable. Their reports show where it went: cultural and social funds, the society's own budget, or other members.
Under the EU directive on collective management, money a society still cannot distribute three years after the end of the year it was collected may be deemed non-distributable, once the society has taken all necessary measures to find the rightsholders. Each society reports the amount and how it was used. The map shows what those reports say.
The amounts are never added up: currencies, years and definitions differ.
Non-distributable balance at 31 Dec 2024 (collection years 2017–2019: €17,759,093; 2020–2021: €13,902,813).
Where it goes: social, cultural and educational activities, decided by the October 2024 assembly.
€3,891,539 of non-distributable money was used in 2024 for copyright-promotion projects. Rightholders keep a 4-year limitation period to claim.
Each figure is shown in its own currency and year, as the society reports it. Nothing is summed.
Stripes mark a country where a second society, or a second rule, sends money another way. Netherlands and SACEM: rules only, no amount found.
Most of it goes into funds. SIAE held €31,661,906 for social, cultural and educational activities. SPEDIDAM and Adami assign theirs to cultural and artistic action. STIM moved SEK 10.8M to its Fund for Musical Diversity in 2025, GEMA adds its amounts to its social and cultural funds, and PPL gave £1.3M to music-industry causes.
Some goes elsewhere. SACEM's statutes make royalties unclaimed for five years a resource of the society. PRS and Buma share unmatched money among the rightsholders they could identify.
Most of SPEDIDAM's €16.6M (€11.9M) and of Adami's €16.0M (€10.0M) is “legal” non-distributable money that follows a 2020 EU court ruling on performers from outside the EEA. It comes from legal uncertainty. The part linked to rightsholders who could not be found is smaller: €4.67M at SPEDIDAM and €1.96M at Adami.
Creators who were never registered, or whose registration did not match, in the countries where their music was used. The funds support music in general; they do not pay the creator who earned the money.
The directive keeps the right to claim under national limitation rules. In Italy, rightholders have four years.
Search an artist, writer or producer, or upload a distributor report to check every streamed song.