Learn How To Claim Your Mechanical Royalties

After reading this article you will:

• Have an understanding of what are mechanical royalties.

• Know what the Mechanical Licensing Collective (A.K.A. MLC) is.

• Be able to claim royalties through the MLC.

First of all, what are mechanical royalties?

This money is earned through reproducing copyrighted works in digital and physical formats.

Songwriters are paid mechanical royalties per song sold, downloaded, and streamed via "on-demand" streaming services.

On-demand streaming is a platform where you are able to choose which song or songs to reproduce ( ie. Spotify), unlike non-interactive which is more like radio and Pandora.

Getting paid has become a struggle for many artists, Billboard has an estimated $250 million in unclaimed royalties (A.K.A. black box royalties), and that's where platforms like the MLC come into play. The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is a nonprofit organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office pursuant to the historic Music Modernization Act of 2018.

In January 2021, The MLC began administering blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download services (digital service providers or DSPs) in the United States. The MLC will then collect the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs and pay songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers.

How To Use The MLC and Get Paid

1. Visit their website at https://www.themlc.com/ and create your profile.

2. After the usual process of account creation you will have to register your works using their intuitive wizard.

3. After you register your songs and they are successfully submitted and approved, the MLC will begin to send you statements that show your owed royalties from different DSPs

4. Setup your payment settings and you're done.

For more information on royalties, copyright, and distribution send me a message or leave a comment below.