The MLC has Distributed $1 Billion to Songwriters to Date

Back in 2018, a bill was signed into US law that paved the way for a complete overhaul of the music licensing framework in the market via the introduction of a blanket mechanical license for digital service providers (DSPs).

That bill, the Music Modernization Act (MMA), resulted in the designation, by the United States Copyright Office (USCO), of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) – an entity tasked with licensing and administering rights.

What that has all meant in practice since then, is that music streaming services in the United States like Spotify and Apple Music have been required to pay large sums of mechanical royalties to MLC, which serves as an exclusive administrator.

The MLC’s job is to then distribute these royalties to music publishers, administrators, ex-US CMOs, and self-administered songwriters, composers and lyricists whose songs have been streamed.

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