Music Connection: The MLC Receives Overwhelming Support During Register of Copyrights Review

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has received significant support from a number of rightsholders and dozens of respected songwriter advocacy, publisher and industry organizations that filed public comments and expressed their support of The MLC in connection with the first periodic review of the designation of The MLC and Digital Licensee Coordinator (DLC) by the Register of Copyrights. The Music Modernization Act (MMA) requires the Register to review the designations of The MLC and DLC once every five years.

The MLC received support from numerous songwriters and songwriter advocacy groups, including the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), Music Artists Coalition (MAC), Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Recording Academy, Songwriters of North America (SONA) and the 100 Percenters, among others.

Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), a not-for-profit songwriters trade association that is dedicated to protecting the rights of and serving aspiring and professional songwriters in all genres of music, stated, “Self-published songwriters had long been frustrated with digital rights management companies...The MLC took this concern to heart and prioritized hiring many human customer service representatives specifically trained and assigned to assist self-published songwriters and even published songwriters who have questions and concerns related to their digital mechanical royalties. NSAI feels confident that more self-published songwriters are collecting digital mechanical royalties now than ever…it is efficiently and effectively licensing, collecting and distributing royalties in a way our industry has not seen before.”

Various music publisher organizations also showed public support of The MLC, including the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), Church Music Publishers Association (CMPA), Independent Music Publishers International Forum (IMPF), International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), Music Publishers Association (MPA), National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) and others.

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