NASHVILLE, TN (CelebrityAccess) — The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) announced that it has distributed more than $1.5 billion in royalties since it officially launched a little over two years ago.
The MLC was created by the U.S. Copyright Office following the passage of the Music Modernization Act, with a mandate to administer a blanket compulsory license and collect royalties from digital music platforms on behalf of music publishers and copyright holders.
The MLC is also tasked with creating and maintaining a musical work database to facilitate royalty distribution and eliminate so-called ‘black box’ royalties left over from unidentified works.
According to the LMC, they have directly distributed over $1.3 billion in blanket royalties and over $160 million in royalties processed by The MLC but paid by DSPs pursuant to voluntary licenses.
The MLC also announced that its database now has more than 33 million registered works, including more than 3 million new works added in 2023 alone. Additionally, the current match rate for all royalties processed through October’s royalty distribution is 90 percent, the MLC said.
According to the MLC, the organization added more than 9,000 new members in 2023, bringing the total to more than 32,000 members through October 2023.
“We are proud of these accomplishments, particularly in reaching the milestone of distributing over $1.5 billion in royalties,” says The MLC’s CEO, Kris Ahrend. “We have effectively illuminated the black box by empowering our members with several tools that enable them to take actions intended to eliminate the black box. We look forward to continuing our work to fulfill our mission of ensuring songwriters, composers, lyricists and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming & download services in the United States accurately and on time.”
At the Annual Meeting, the MLC announced that Alisa Coleman was re-elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve on The MLC’s Board of Directors for a second three-year term. The board’s Class A members
Alisa Coleman was re-elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve on The MLC’s Board of Directors for a second three-year term while Troy Verges was selected by the MLC’s Class A Members to fill the open seat as a Songwriter Director of the Board.
