The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) held its fourth Annual Membership Meeting on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. The meeting opened with an announcement of the re-selection of one songwriter Board Member to serve a second three-year term and the results of the Class B Board of Directors election held to fill two publisher seats on the Board. Following those announcements, Alisa Coleman, the Chair of The MLC’s Board of Directors offered personal remarks regarding the progress of The MLC over the past year, and members of The MLC’s leadership team then provided an extensive update on those operations, containing updates on numerous metrics and key performance indicators.
The MLC is governed by a Board of Directors made up of songwriters and representatives of music publishers. The MLC’s Class A Members selected Oak Felder to serve a second three-year term as a Songwriter Director of the Board. The MLC’s Class B Members re-elected Rell Lafargue to serve on The MLC’s Board of Directors for a second three-year term. The MLC’s Class B Members elected Jason Rys to fill a seat as a Publisher Director of the Board. Finally, The MLC announced that the make-up of the Class C Members will not change in 2025.
As the statutory mechanical licensing collective established under the Music Modernization Act (MMA), The MLC is responsible for administering the blanket compulsory mechanical license available to eligible digital service providers (DSPs) in the United States. Since the first royalty distribution in April 2021, The MLC has enrolled over 47,000 Members and completed every one of its 42 monthly royalty distributions on time or early. Additionally, The MLC has more than 42 million works in its public database, which allows anyone to search The MLC’s song ownership database free of charge and has achieved current match rates of over 90 percent. As a result, The MLC has achieved total royalties distributed of nearly $2.5 billion.
The MLC has also effectively 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 using The MLC’s Matching Tool. To date, The MLC has received and approved nearly 2 million proposed matches submitted by Members through the Matching Tool.
Here is a list of the key metrics and milestones The MLC’s leadership team shared during the meeting:
- The MLC now has more than 47,000 Members, having added more than 11,000 to date in 2024.
- The MLC has compiled data for more than 42 million works in its public database, an increase of over 7 million new works added in 2024 alone.
- The MLC’s current match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution is over 90 percent.
- The MLC has completed 42 monthly royalty distributions to date, every one of which has been completed on time or early.
- The MLC has achieved total royalties distributed of more than $2.4 billion. As of the September distribution, The MLC has distributed over $150 million in historical royalties.
- The MLC successfully developed and enhanced its growing suite of tools, including the recently released Overclaims Tool, that enable Members to register works, claim their shares of previously registered works, submit proposed matches of their works to unmatched usage, and more.
- The MLC has made extensive efforts to conduct outreach and educational activities aimed at reaching the full cross-section of the rightsholder community, with over 350 in-person outreach and education events, to reach and educate rightsholders.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the support we have received from our Members and industry partners,” says The MLC’s CEO, Kris Ahrend. “It is because of their support and partnership that we have been able to fulfill our mission so effectively and achieve these milestones. We remain committed to providing world-class service that empowers our Members, enhances transparency, drives innovation, and transforms the way rights are administered in the music industry. We look forward to continuing our work in the coming year to fulfill our mission of ensuring songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming and download services in the United States accurately and on time.”
More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and Advisory Committees can be found here. For more information about The MLC, visit https://www.themlc.com.
