The Mauritius Society of Authors banked its July 2026 royalty distribution on 31 July. It collected Rs 9,904,500.20, released Rs 6,420,836.87 for distribution, and could not find a documented owner for Rs 1,037,891.55 of that.
That last figure is 16.2 percent of everything available to pay out. After local rightsholders themselves, it is the biggest line in the breakdown.
MASA publishes the arithmetic in a three-page member circular, and the same leak drains most small-market societies. A CMO, or collective management organisation, can only pay a share it can attach to a registered work.
What the July exercise actually paid for
The Distribution Exercise July 2026 summary lists five collection categories:
- Broadcasting MBC TV, usage years 2021, 2022 and 2024: Rs 4,064,739.00
- Broadcasting MBC radio, Mauritius and Rodrigues, 2021 to 2024: Rs 2,775,281.20
- Occasional events 2025: Rs 1,913,000.00
- Aircraft, Air Mauritius 2025: Rs 1,131,300.00
- Mechanical rights Mauritius, September to December 2025: Rs 20,180.00
Read the years, not the totals. A radio spin from 2021 was paid in July 2026, a five-year lag. The mechanical rights line covering four months of 2025 came to Rs 20,180, roughly 430 US dollars at the 46.96 rupee rate quoted on 9 September 2026.
There is no digital or streaming category in the exercise at all. Every rupee in it comes from a broadcaster, a venue, an event or an aircraft cabin.
Deductions take 35 percent before anyone is paid
Administrative deductions were Rs 2,966,627.87, or 29.95 percent of gross. Social and welfare deductions took a further Rs 516,020.93, or 5.2 percent. Net available for distribution was 64.8 percent of what came in.
That is high, but not an outlier for the region. Namibia’s society spends 62 percent of its money on itself, and Botswana’s local members took 66 percent of Distribution 17.
The undocumented works line is the part you control
MASA labels the Rs 1,037,891.55 as “wrong work entry/not declared.” The society knows the work was used and can name it on a log sheet. It cannot match that title to a registered work document carrying named writer shares, so it cannot bank the money to anyone.
In June 2025 MASA published a list of unidentified local works from the Recorded Music Local 2022 and 2023 distribution. It runs to 853 entries, each carrying the placeholder work number W-9999999. These are named Mauritian writers with named songs whose money is sitting in a suspense account for want of a filing.
The log sheet is the payment rail
A log sheet is the usage return a radio station or hotel submits listing what it played. A cue sheet is the equivalent for television programming. In Mauritius these are still collected in person: MASA told hotels its representatives would visit between 1 and 4 September 2026 to collect log sheets covering January to December 2025, feeding a December 2026 payment.
When the returns are late or thin, the money does not move. Rs 4,375,562.59 was carried forward out of the July exercise for that reason: Rs 1,624,625.00 of MBC TV 2023 money on insufficient broadcaster data, and Rs 2,750,937.59 of 2024 small-user collections on late submission.
The base is thin. There were 2,160 local beneficiaries, of whom 1,422 received under Rs 500 and 907 received under Rs 100. Thirty-five sat in the Rs 25,000 to Rs 75,000 band. For scale, MASA paid Rs 18,423,000 to about 1,260 local rightsholders in December 2025, 50 of them in Rodrigues, per L’Express reporting on director Gérard Louise.
What to file before December
- Register the work, not just the recording. Title, writers, shares and publisher, filed with MASA before the December exercise closes.
- Match your metadata titles exactly to how the song is announced on air. Log-sheet matching is string matching.
- Give the society bank details. The circular says statements are issued on request only, from 17 August 2026.
- Raise it at the AGM on 4 October 2026, where the 2025 to 2026 financial statements are tabled.
None of this touches streaming. A Mauritian artist’s Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer income arrives through a distributor’s reporting, never through the July circular. Madagascar runs the same split. Getting paid twice means working both rails.
