Summary

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is an organization that administers blanket mechanical licenses for eligible streaming and download services in the United States. Its role is to collect mechanical royalties from digital services and distribute them monthly to self-administered songwriters, composers, lyricists, music publishers, administrators, and collective management organizations.

Functionality and Process

• Registers songwriters, publishers, and other rights holders as members to collect royalties.
• Allows members to register their songs through the Member Hub within The MLC Portal.
• Collects usage data and royalties from Digital Service Providers (DSPs) that operate under blanket licenses.
• Matches reported streams and downloads from DSPs to registered songs to calculate royalties owed.
• Distributes collected royalties on a monthly basis to members.

Target Audience

The MLC serves independent songwriters, music publishers, administrators, collective management organizations, and those seeking to manage song data for digital audio mechanical royalties in the U.S.

Additional Resources and Transparency

The MLC provides educational resources for songwriters, publishers, digital service providers, students, educators, lawyers, and stakeholders. It offers dashboards designed to give members clear and transparent insights into royalty data.

News and Updates

The site publishes news and press releases about statutory designations, educational courses, and advisory committee updates related to The MLC's operations.