Mechanical Licensing Collective

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) is a nonprofit organisation established under the Music Modernization Act of 2018.[1] It was created to issue blanket mechanical licences for qualified streaming services in the United States, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal.[2]  

Mechanical Licensing Collective
IndustryMusic publishing
Founded2018 (2018)
Headquarters
United States
Area served
United States
Key people
Kris Ahrend (CEO)
Websitethemlc.com

History

In 2020, The MLC announced that four music data companies are joining its Data Quality Initiative (DQI), including: Blokur, Exactuals, Music Data Services, and TuneRegistry.[3] This move was made to ensure the accuracy of their musical works data in its current database.

As of January 2021, the MLC began paying royalties to rights owners.[4] In October 2022, it was reported that the MLC had paid almost $700 million in blanket royalties to songwriters and publishers.[5][6]

Funding

The digital services that use the MLC have a legal obligation to spend $33.5 million on their start-up costs and $28.5 million on their first-year operating costs.[7]

Function

To resolve the issue of music creators not getting paid for their work, the MLC built a publicly accessible musical works database and portal that creators and music publishers can use to submit and maintain their musical works data. This is so that when their music is played on streaming services, the generated royalties are collected from digital service providers and distributed to the appropriate songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.[8]

References
  1. "Music Licensing Modernization | U.S. Copyright Office". www.copyright.gov. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  2. "About". www.themlc.com. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  3. "The MLC Partners With Software And Service Providers On Data Quality Initiative". musicrow.com. December 9, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  4. "What is the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)?". help.songtrust.com. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  5. "Nearly $700m has been paid to songwriters and publishers by the MLC to date". Music Business Worldwide. October 24, 2022. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  6. Robinson, Kristin (October 21, 2022). "The MLC Reports $700M in Royalties Distributed to Songwriters and Publishers". Billboard. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  7. "Music Streamers Agree to Royalty Collective Funding Levels (1)". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  8. "Songtrust | The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC)". www.songtrust.com. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
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