What is the Mechanical Licensing Collective "MLC"?

According to the Music Modernization Act of 2018, the U.S. Copyright Office designated The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) as a nonprofit organization to collect digital mechanical royalties in the United States. The MLC is fully funded by Digital Service Providers such as Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music etc, meaning the operational costs are not passed on to songwriters and/or publishers.

Every time someone reproduces your song, they pay a mechanical royalty. Simply put, every time your song is streamed on an interactive streaming platform like Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube, downloaded as an mp3 in a store like iTunes or Amazon, or sold on a physical product like a vinyl record or CD, your song has been reproduced and is due a mechanical royalty. This is a different royalty to that collected by BMI and ASCAP which is a performance royalty.

The MLC will collect and pay mechanical royalties collected by eligible Digital Service Providers (DSPs) such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal, from within the United States only. The MLC will not collect mechanical royalties from those platforms outside of the United States. The MLC will also not collect reproduction royalties generated on platforms such as YouTube, Tik Tok and Facebook. The MLC does not collect royalties from physical sales (such as Vinyl, CDs etc). It also does not collect lyric-generated royalties (such as Instagram stickers). The MLC only covers a small number of income sources, Allot Lines Publishing will ensure your works are registered with the MLC and hundreds of other societies.

This applies exclusively to the United States. The MLC does not collect mechanical royalties from DSPs outside the United States. Allot Lines Publishing handles the registration and collection of those royalties with the hundreds of other CMOS and MROs around the world. 

Starting in January 2021, The MLC will issue and administer blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download services (digital service providers, or DSPs) in the United States. The MLC will then collect the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs and pay songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.

The MLC is also building a publicly accessible musical works database, as well as a portal that creators and music publishers can use to submit and maintain their musical works data. These tools will aid in the proper payment of creators and music publishers.