Photo Credit: Filip
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) formed after the Music Modernization Act, has distributed nearly $700 million in blanket royalties to its members.
The MLC held its second annual membership meeting last week, sharing some key metrics the group has met. It also announced that three current members of the MLC Board of Directors were each selected to serve a second three-year term on the board–initial terms were slated to end in October 2022.
The MLC has collected almost $1 billion in mechanical royalties to date. As a result of these 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 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%. The MLC’s initial match rates for newly reported usage has exceeded 85% for six straight months.
The group now has more than 22,000 members and has added more than 6,000 new members in 2022 alone. The MLC has received more than 17 million works registrations to date and has processed more than 98% of those registrations. So far, the collective has completed 19 monthly royalty distributions, and each has been completed on time or early.
“We are incredibly proud of these accomplishments,” adds 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.”
Tim Cohan and Scott Cutler were each elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve as Board Directors for a second three-year term. The MLC’s Class A Members selected Kara DioGuardi to serve a second three-year term as a Songwriter Director on the Board.