How Do I Confirm or Dispute a Mechanical Claim with HFA?

To make a mechanical claim on a work, simply submit a song registration including your mechanical share of that work using your preferred song submission method (ie. eSong, CWR). If the submitted claim matches to an existing work and puts the mechanical share picture over 100.06%, the submission will be flagged as an overclaim and will not be able to complete processing until the overclaim is resolved. Per HFA's relationship with The MLC, we have adopted The MLC's Conflicts, Disputes, and Overclaims processes. Therefore, Overclaims will need to be maintained through The MLC's Overclaims Tool. More information on the policy can be found here: Policies.

If you have previously submitted a song registration that was rejected due to conflict, submitting again will allow this work to get picked up into the Overclaims process. Therefore, we ask that you submit the registration again.

HFA may reach out to confirm, update, or resolve conflicts related to mechanical royalty claims. To ensure smooth and timely resolution, we’ve outlined the claims confirmation process below based on the type of inquiry.

1. Duplicate Song Code Confirmation

When you’ll receive this: If HFA identifies that there may be duplicate entries (i.e., two HFA Song Codes) for the same work.

What we’ll ask: We will provide both sets of metadata, including:

• HFA Song Code(s)
• Song Title
• Writers
• Currently registered mechanical claims

What you need to do:

1. Confirm whether the two entries refer to the same underlying work.
2. Submit your mechanical claims using the Claim Conflict Form here.
3. The Claim Conflict Form includes an optional Claim Conflict Template that you can download, if you prefer. You can upload the completed template into the form once completed. 
4. Once we have confirmation from all parties, we will merge the duplicate codes.

2. Claim Review Prompted by a Licensee Request

When you’ll receive this: If a licensee notifies us that the current shares on file may be outdated or inconsistent.

What we’ll ask: We’ll provide the song details currently on file and ask that you confirm or update your mechanical claims.

What you need to do:

1. Review the provided data (HFA Song Code, song title, writer names, and current claims).
2. Confirm or update your claim via the Claim Conflict Form here.
3. The Claim Conflict Form includes an optional Claim Conflict Template that you can download, if you prefer. You can upload the completed template into the form once completed. 

Claim Conflict Template

If you use the Claim Conflict Template and upload into the Claim Conflict form, please complete the template as follows, to help us process conflicts efficiently:

• Enter one claim per row. 
• If you are asserting multiple claims to the same work (e.g., for different time periods or writer interests), enter each claim on its own line.
• Include all relevant fields (e.g., Song Code, Writer, Designee Name, P# Number, and Claimed %).
• Upload the completed template into the Claim Conflict Form.