A Guide to The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) and How to Claim Your Royalties

Introduction

You've been watching your Spotify and Apple Music stream counts climb steadily for months. The numbers look impressive—tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of plays. But when you check your royalty statements, the income seems surprisingly low. Here's what many independent artists don't realize: you might be missing out on an entire royalty stream that could significantly boost your songwriting income.

Core Concept: The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is a vital, non-profit organization created specifically to collect U.S. digital mechanical royalties and get paid the digital mechanical royalties you deserve every month for streams of your music. For many independent songwriters, registering with The MLC represents one of the easiest ways to immediately increase their monthly royalty income.

What You'll Learn: This comprehensive guide will break down exactly what The MLC is and why it was created, identify who absolutely needs to join (and who doesn't), and provide a step-by-step process to claim your mechanical royalties—including those valuable historical "unmatched" royalties that may have been sitting unclaimed for years.

What is The MLC and Why Was It Created?

The Problem Before The MLC: The "Black Box" of Digital Royalties

Before January 2021, the digital music ecosystem had a massive, costly problem. Digital streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music were required to pay mechanical royalties to songwriters, but they often struggled to match the millions of songs in their catalogs to the correct rights holders.

The result was a phenomenon known as "unmatched royalties" or the "black box"—billions of dollars in mechanical royalties that were earned by songwriters but never paid out due to incomplete or inaccurate data. The MLC receives Phono 3 royalty adjustments – estimates an increase of over $281M in mechanical royalties, demonstrating the massive scale of previously unclaimed money.

The Solution: The Music Modernization Act (MMA)

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is a nonprofit organization created in 2019 by the Music Modernization Act (MMA) as landmark U.S. legislation passed in 2018 to fix this systemic problem.

The MMA's primary goal was to create a more transparent, efficient, and comprehensive system for licensing and paying mechanical royalties for interactive streams in the United States, ensuring that songwriters actually receive the money they're legally owed.

Defining The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective)

The MMA directs the Register of Copyrights to designate an entity as the MLC to administer the blanket license and distribute collected royalties to songwriters and music publishers. It is designated by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) and endorsed by the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and the Songwriters of North America (SONA).

On January 1, 2021, The MLC began issuing blanket mechanical licenses for interactive streaming and download services (digital service providers or DSPs) in the United States, fundamentally changing how mechanical royalties are collected and distributed.

What The MLC Collects (and What It Doesn't)

The MLC DOES Collect:
• Mechanical royalties from interactive digital streams in the U.S. (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, etc.)
• Mechanical royalties from digital downloads in the U.S.
• Historical unmatched royalties from previous years

The MLC DOES NOT Collect:
• Performance royalties (collected by PROs like ASCAP, BMI, SESAC)
• Mechanical royalties from physical sales (CDs, vinyl)
• Any royalties generated outside of the United States
• Sync royalties (from TV, film, or commercials)
• Royalties from non-interactive streams like traditional radio
• Royalties from user-generated content on platforms like TikTok or main YouTube

Who Needs to Join The MLC?

Self-Administered Songwriters (This is Crucial!)

If you are a songwriter who writes your own music and has not signed your publishing rights to a music publisher, you must join The MLC directly. This is the only way to collect your U.S. digital mechanical royalties.

Anyone entitled to collect digital audio mechanical royalties from The MLC needs to become a Member of The MLC. Without this registration, you're essentially donating your mechanical royalties to the streaming services.

Music Publishers

Music publishers are responsible for joining The MLC and registering the entire catalogs of all the songwriters they represent. If you have a traditional music publisher, they should handle this process for you.

Songwriters with a Publishing Administrator

If you use a publishing administrator like Songtrust, Sentric Music, or the publishing add-ons from distributors like TuneCore Publishing or CD Baby Pro, they will register your songs with The MLC on your behalf.

Actionable Advice: If you're signed up with Songtrust, we register your songs with The MLC on your behalf, along with local societies and other pay sources in the U.S. and 215 countries and territories around the world. Always confirm with your specific administrator that your works are being registered with The MLC.

A Note for Artists with a Distributor (like DistroKid, TuneCore, etc.)

Here's a crucial distinction that confuses many artists: Your distributor collects royalties for your master recording (the sound recording copyright). The MLC pays royalties for your composition (the songwriting copyright). These are different rights and different revenue streams.

Unless you've specifically signed up for their publishing administration service, your distributor is not collecting mechanical royalties from The MLC for you. You still need to register directly or use a separate publishing administrator.

Step-by-Step: How to Claim Your Mechanical Royalties

Step 1: Become a Member on The MLC Portal

Navigate to themlc.com and look for their "Connect to Collect" initiative. Connect to Collect, which refers to the process of becoming a Member of The MLC. You connect by joining The MLC and registering your musical works data, thus positioning yourself to collect the mechanical royalties you may be owed.

Songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers do not pay to use The MLC. Membership is completely free for all rights holders, as The MLC's operational costs are paid by the digital services.

Step 2: Register Your Entire Catalog of Songs

You must register every song you have written or co-written to ensure complete royalty collection. The MLC distributes digital audio mechanical royalties to eligible self-administered songwriters, composers, lyricists, music publishers, administrators and CMOs on a monthly basis.

Key Information Needed for Works Registration:
• Song title (exactly as it appears on releases)
• All co-writer names and their ownership percentages (splits must total 100%)
• Publisher information (if applicable)
• ISRC codes for all recordings of the song
• Release information and catalog numbers

Step 3: Use The MLC's Data Matching Tools

The MLC is tasked with developing and maintaining a comprehensive database of musical works and sound recordings, which will be publicly available. The portal includes sophisticated tools that help you "match" your registered compositions to the millions of sound recordings that have generated royalties.

This matching process is crucial because it connects your songwriting credits to actual streaming data, ensuring you get paid for every eligible stream.

Step 4: Search for and Claim Historical Unmatched Royalties

One of The MLC's most valuable features is its responsibility for distributing historical "black box" royalties that were never paid out before the MMA. The MLC distributes the first set of matched historical royalties alongside MLC monthly blanket royalty distributions — a process that will continue monthly moving forward. The first set of historical unmatched royalty data is uploaded to The MLC Portal, followed by a new set of data every month.

Use the portal's search features to identify any of your songs that may have earned these historical royalties and claim them through the platform's claiming tools.

Step 5: Complete Your Profile and Add Payment Information

The final step involves adding your banking and tax information to your account. The MLC distributes digital audio mechanical royalties to eligible self-administered songwriters, composers, lyricists, music publishers, administrators and CMOs on a monthly basis, making this setup essential for receiving payments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it free to join The MLC?

Yes, absolutely. Songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers do not pay to use The MLC. By law, the digital services that use The MLC will proportionally fund The MLC's startup costs of $33.5 million and first-year operational budget of $28.5 million. Following the first year of operation, each subsequent year's funding requirements will be reassessed and funded by the DSPs. Membership and use of The MLC Portal are completely free for all rights holders.

I'm already with ASCAP or BMI. Do I still need to join The MLC?

Yes, absolutely. The MLC is responsible for the collection of mechanical royalties only. There is no overlap in between the MLC and the collection of performance royalties through Performing Rights Organizations (P.R.O.s). Your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) collects performance royalties, while The MLC collects U.S. digital mechanical royalties. They are two different types of income, and you need both to collect everything you're owed as a songwriter.

What if I use a service like Songtrust or TuneCore Publishing?

If you have a publishing administrator, they should be handling your MLC registration and royalty collection for you. If you've signed up for CD Baby Pro Publishing in the past, we will register those works with the MLC and collect mechanical royalties from streaming through the MLC on your behalf through our legacy Pro Publishing service, and there is no need to add the MLC through CDB Boost. If you or another administrator, like Songtrust, have already registered your works and songwriters to collect from the MLC, you should not opt those works into the MLC through CDB Boost. You generally do not need to create your own account, but it's always wise to confirm with your administrator.

Does The MLC collect royalties from YouTube?

The MLC will also collect the royalties due under those licenses from DSPs, including YouTube, and pay copyright owners. The MLC collects mechanical royalties from interactive streams on YouTube Music, but it does not collect royalties from the use of music in user-generated videos on the main YouTube.com platform. Those are considered audiovisual uses and generate different types of royalties through YouTube's Content ID system.

How often does The MLC pay out royalties?

The MLC distributes digital audio mechanical royalties to eligible self-administered songwriters, composers, lyricists, music publishers, administrators and CMOs on a monthly basis. However, there is a lag time in the payment system. Royalties collected by The MLC within any given quarter are paid out two quarters after they are collected. This means that royalties collected in Q1 of a given year (January, February, March) will appear in your CD Baby Sales & Accounting in Q3 of that year, and so on for each quarter.

What happens to historical unmatched royalties if I don't claim them?

The MLC has also been tasked with collecting and paying out historical and unmatched royalties to rights holders. The Music Modernization Act (MMA) requires the MLC to hold these royalties and attempt to match as much of it as possible for a minimum of 3 years. If royalties remain unclaimed after this period, they may be distributed proportionally to other rights holders, meaning you could permanently lose money that rightfully belongs to you.

Can I register songs I co-wrote with other people?

Yes, but all co-writers must be properly credited with their ownership percentages. Each co-writer can register the same song through their own MLC account or publishing administrator, but the ownership splits must be consistent across all registrations to avoid conflicts in royalty distribution.