The MLC Holds Second Annual Membership Meeting: Announces Nearly $700M in Royalties Distributed to Date to Members

NASHVILLE, TN – The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) held its second Annual Membership Meeting this week, sharing key metrics from the last year and announcing that three current members of The MLC Board of Directors were each selected to serve a second three-year term on the Board. Their initial terms were slated to end this month. 

In the year and a half since launching full operations, The MLC has met every milestone set by Congress in the Music Modernization Act of 2018 and successfully distributed nearly $700 million in blanket royalties to its Members. Highlights shared during the meeting by members of The MLC’s leadership team included the following key metrics:

• The MLC has collected almost $1 billion in mechanical royalties.
• As a result of The MLC’s efforts, rightsholders have received more than $800 million in royalties — nearly $700 million in blanket royalties distributed directly by The MLC and nearly $120 million in royalties (when valued at the statutory rates used by The MLC) processed by The MLC but paid by DSPs pursuant to voluntary licenses.
• The MLC’s current match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution is 89 percent, while The MLC’s initial match rates for newly reported usage has exceeded 85 percent for six straight months.
• The MLC now has more than 22,000 Members, having added more than 6,000 to date in 2022.
• The MLC has received more than 17 million works registrations to date and has processed more than 98 percent of those registrations.
• The MLC has completed 19 monthly royalty distributions to date, every one of which has been completed on time or early.

“We are incredibly proud of these accomplishments,” says The MLC CEO Kris Ahrend. “Our team has worked hard to build robust data processing systems that allow us to distribute royalties accurately and on time. We have also released a suite of tools for our Members that enable them to manage their catalog data effectively and correct any missing or inaccurate data they find. While there is still more work to do, we are pleased with our progress and are deeply appreciative of all the support we have received from our Members and from the broader industry at large.”

During the meeting, a representative from the accounting and audit firm, Withum, shared the results of The MLC’s recent Class B Board Seat election. Tim Cohan and Scott Cutler were each elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve as Board Directors for a second 3-year term. This announcement came at the end of a months-long election process that was administered by an outside firm, eBallot, and certified by Withum. The MLC’s Class A Members selected Kara DioGuardi to serve a second 3-year term as a Songwriter Director on the Board.

Finally, The MLC announced that the make-up of the Class C Members will not change in 2023, though Sony Music Publishing has selected Michael Abitbol to fill their Director seat, which was recently vacated by Peter Brodsky. Abitbol’s appointment by the Librarian of Congress is pending. More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and Advisory Committees can be found here.