MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by music data analytics firm Chartmetric.
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) reports that it has now distributed over $1.5 billion in royalties to songwriters in the past two and half years since launching full operations.
The MLC was established by the United States Copyright Office (USCO) as an entity tasked with administering a blanket compulsory license for the use of musical works by digital music services following the passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA) in 2018.
What that means in practice, 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 the 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.
As of Monday (October 30), the MLC said it has already met every milestone set by Congress in the MMA and distributed over $1.5 billion in royalties.
In October 2022, the MLC said it has paid out more than $800 million since its launch, suggesting that distributions in the year ended October 30 totaled roughly $700 million.
In February of this year, the MLC said it had distributed $1 billion since it started operations, translating to $500 million in payments from February to October.
Most recently, the MLC added that it has illuminated the “black box” for digital audio mechanicals by giving members the ability to search all the unmatched data and propose matches for their works.
“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.”
Kris Ahrend, Mechanical Licensing Collective
The MLC shared other key metrics and milestones during its third Annual Membership Meeting last week, including:
Distributing 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
Achieving a 90% match rate for all royalties processed through October’s royalty distribution
Adding more than 9,000 members in 2023 to reach 32,000 members
Adding more than 33 million works in its public database, with data for over 3 million new works added in 2023 alone
Completing 31 monthly royalty distributions to date, each accomplished on time or ahead of schedule
“We are proud of these accomplishments, particularly in reaching the milestone of distributing over $1.5 billion in royalties,” said 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.”
During the MLC’s annual meeting, the group also held its Class B Board of Directors election, with Alisa Coleman securing re-election for a second three-year term.
Additionally, Troy Verges was selected as the new Songwriter Director of the Board, succeeding Craig Wiseman, while Kevin Kadish was re-elected for a second term.
The MLC announced that the makeup of its Class C Board will not change next year.
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