The term Black Box refers to a pool of revenue held by collection societies. It's where royalties generated from songs cannot be allocated or traced to the songwriter and publisher. These royalties are also known as "unallocated royalties" or "unclaimed royalties" and are a common problem for songwriters and publishers without global publishing administration.
Royalties can end up in the Black Box due to insufficient data or because the songwriter, publisher, or songs were not registered with the collection society/pay source. For instance, if a US-based songwriter does not claim their overseas mechanical royalties within a set period (usually between 6 to 18 months, depending on the territory), they could lose those royalties to the Black Box.
Black Box royalties are often distributed to local publishers based on market share, meaning your royalties could be paid to someone else and lost forever. The best way to avoid this is to partner with a global publishing administrator like UniteSync.
