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Understanding The MLC

By PMApub Academy · Last reviewed 2026-10-13 · About 7 min read

What The MLC Is and Why It Exists

The MLC is a non-profit organization created under the Music Modernization Act, a US law passed in 2018. The Copyright Office designated it as the collective in 2019, and the blanket license became available on January 1, 2021. The law changed how streaming services license the compositions behind the songs they offer, and it designated one collective to administer that licensing.

Before this, a streaming service had to find and license each song individually, which was slow and error prone. Now, services that offer on-demand streams and downloads can use a blanket mechanical license. The MLC administers that license, receives royalty payments and data from the services, and passes the money on to the people who own the song.

What The MLC Collects and What It Does Not

The MLC collects digital audio mechanical royalties from licensed digital services in the United States. The covered uses are interactive streams (the listener chooses the exact song, as on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Tidal), limited downloads, and permanent downloads. It covers musical works that fall under the blanket license, so a song a publisher licenses to a service directly outside that system is handled under that deal instead.

Just as important is what it does not handle:

• Performance royalties. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR collect those for the public performance of the composition. The MLC does not.
• Master recording royalties. Money for the recording itself usually comes through your distributor or label, and digital radio performance money comes through SoundExchange.
• Physical products. Mechanicals for CDs, vinyl, and other physical copies are licensed and paid outside the blanket license.
• Non-US collection. Streams outside the United States are handled by societies in those territories.

A good rule of thumb: The MLC pays the songwriter and publisher side for US streams and downloads under the blanket license. A performing rights organization membership does not replace it.

Who Needs to Register

The people who own a share of the composition are the ones who get paid. That usually means songwriters and music publishers. If you write your own songs and have no publishing deal, you are in effect your own publisher, and you can join The MLC directly as a self-published songwriter. If a publisher or an administrator represents your songs, they may register them for you, so confirm who is doing what.

The MLC states that connecting with it is free, and it publishes its current membership terms on its website. Check those terms yourself before you sign up, because processes and options can change.

A Simple Example: Maya Releases a Single

Maya writes and records a single called Night Bus and releases it through a distributor. Her distributor delivers the recording to the streaming services, and she has joined a performing rights organization as a songwriter. She assumes she is set.

She is not quite. The distributor pays her for the recording, and her PRO collects the performance side of the composition. But the mechanical royalty for the composition, generated by each on-demand stream, is a separate right. If Maya never registers Night Bus with The MLC, the services may have trouble matching the streams to her and her share could sit unpaid. Registering the work, with the correct songwriters and splits, is how she gets it in front of the right payee.

How to Get Set Up Step by Step

1. Gather your data. For each song, collect the title, all songwriters and their ownership percentages, and any publisher information.
2. Collect identifiers. Find the ISRC for each recording your distributor assigned. If you have an ISWC for the composition, keep that too. These codes help match recordings to works.
3. Join as a member. Create an account as a songwriter or publisher and follow the verification steps.
4. Register your works. Enter each composition and link the recordings that use it. Splits across writers must total 100 percent.
5. Check for conflicts. If another party has claimed part of a song, resolve it with your co-writers rather than waiting.
6. Review statements. After payments begin, compare statements to your own records and report mismatches.

Keep a simple spreadsheet of every song, writer split, and registration status. The Music Monetization Plan Template in PMApub Academy is a handy place to track which societies each song is registered with, and ReleaseReady can help you keep release details organized so the metadata you give each organization stays consistent.

For labels, managers, and teams

When you represent more than one songwriter, the MLC stops being a one-time signup and becomes a catalog-hygiene job. Payment follows data, and data degrades quickly across several artists, producers, and releases.

Start with ownership. For every song, decide who the registrant is: the writer as a self-published songwriter, a publishing company you control, or a third-party publisher or administrator. Do not let two accounts claim the same share. Overlapping or conflicting claims can hold up payment for everyone on the song.

Make a signed split sheet part of the release checklist, collected before the song is delivered to any service. It should list every writer, each percentage, each writer's publisher and PRO, and the agreed song title. That one document then feeds your MLC registration, your PRO registrations, and your distributor metadata, so the three stay consistent.

Keep a catalog register with one row per song: title and alternate titles, writers and splits, ISWC if assigned, linked ISRCs, registration status at each organization, and date registered. Review it on a schedule, and search the MLC public database for new unmatched or partially claimed works.

If you or an administrator collect on behalf of writers, put the terms in writing: the administration fee, how income is accounted for, how often statements go out, and whether the writer can audit your records. Have an attorney draft or review those terms.

Finally, control account access. Use a shared company email for logins, record who holds credentials, and remove access when a team member leaves.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming a PRO membership also collects streaming mechanicals. In the US, those flow through the MLC under the blanket license, so the two registrations do different jobs.
• Registering a song with incomplete or guessed splits. Wrong shares cause disputes and delayed payment, so get written agreement from every writer first.
• Using different titles, spellings, or writer names at your distributor, your PRO, and the MLC. Inconsistent data is a leading reason works fail to match.
• Skipping older releases. Songs from before you joined may still be unmatched or only partly claimed.
• Registering the same share from two accounts, for example as a writer and through a publisher or administrator, without coordinating.
• Leaving out ISRCs or never linking recordings to the composition, which makes it harder for services' usage reports to match to your song.
• Ignoring statements. Compare them to your catalog register and report mismatches rather than assuming everything is correct.
• Paying a third party to do what the free public tools let you do yourself, without reading the agreement first.

Action checklist

1. List every song you wrote or co-wrote, with alternate titles and all names you have written under.
2. Confirm who owns each share and get split sheets signed by every writer.
3. Decide whether you register as a self-published songwriter, a publisher, or through an administrator.
4. Gather ISRCs from your distributor and any ISWCs for the compositions.
5. Create your MLC account and complete verification.
6. Register each work with exact writer names and shares totaling 100 percent, and link the recordings.
7. Search the public database for each song and fix missing or misspelled data.
8. Resolve any conflicting claims directly with co-writers.
9. Record each registration in your catalog register with the date.
10. Review statements when they arrive and compare them with your own records.

Key terms

• Mechanical royalty: payment owed to the owners of a musical composition when it is reproduced and distributed, including by digital delivery.
• Blanket license: a single license under the Music Modernization Act that lets eligible digital services cover many musical works for covered uses, administered by The MLC.
• Interactive stream: a stream where the listener chooses the specific song to play.
• Limited download: a download that can be played only for a restricted time or under other restrictions.
• Permanent download: a purchased download the buyer keeps, such as a track from a download store.
• Digital service provider (DSP): a streaming or download service such as Spotify or Apple Music.
• ISRC: International Standard Recording Code, an identifier for a specific sound recording.
• ISWC: International Standard Musical Work Code, an identifier for a composition.
• Split sheet: a signed document stating each writer's ownership percentage in a song.
• Self-published songwriter: a writer who owns their own publishing share and has no outside publisher for that song.
• Music Modernization Act: the 2018 US law that created the blanket license and The MLC.