What is The MLC? The streaming money for your songs in the US
The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective) collects the mechanical royalties that services such as Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music pay in the US for the songs they stream or sell as downloads, and pays them to songwriters and publishers. Your distributor doesn’t collect it and neither do ASCAP or BMI, so if you write your own songs and nobody administers them, that money can only reach you through The MLC. Here is what it pays, who should join, how to register for free and what happens to money nobody claims.
This guide is general information about a US system, based on The MLC’s own pages and its press release of September 30, 2026 (read on October 25, 2026). Rules and figures change, so check the details on themlc.com before you decide.
What The MLC is
The MLC is the organization designated by the US Copyright Office to administer the blanket mechanical license created by the Music Modernization Act of 2018. Since January 2021, digital services can stream or sell downloads of any song in the US under that single license, as long as they report every use and pay the statutory rate to The MLC. The MLC matches those reports to the songs registered with it and pays the owners. In June 2026 the Register of Copyrights continued its designation after the first periodic review.
It pays for the composition (the song: melody and lyrics), not for the recording. Every streamed track generates money on both sides; the two copyrights are explained in how music royalties work.
What it pays and what it doesn’t
| Money | Does The MLC pay it? |
|---|---|
| Mechanical royalties from on-demand streaming and downloads in the US | Yes, to songwriters who administer themselves, publishers and administrators |
| Performance royalties for the song (radio, TV, venues, the performance side of streaming) | No: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or GMR in the US, or your local society |
| The recording (the master) on streaming and stores | No: your distributor or label |
| The recording on satellite and internet radio in the US | No: SoundExchange |
| Mechanical royalties outside the US | No: the local society of each country, or your publisher |
| Sync (a song in a film, series, ad or game) | No: it is negotiated directly with the owners — see sync licensing |
So a songwriter who also performs and owns their masters can be paid by four different organizations for the same stream. None of them replaces the others.
Who should join
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You write songs and no publisher or administrator collects for you | Become a Member yourself: The MLC calls this being “self-administered”. You don’t need a publishing company or a PRO membership |
| You signed with a publisher or a publishing administrator | They are the Member and collect your share. You can still open the free Songwriter Hub to see and export your catalog and suggest recording matches |
| You are a member of a collecting society outside the US | Check first: some societies are Members of The MLC and already collect your US mechanicals. Don’t give the same songs to two organizations |
| You only perform songs written by others | You don’t need The MLC: your money from the recording comes through your distributor or label and SoundExchange |
The rule, in The MLC’s words, is that anyone entitled to collect digital audio mechanical royalties in the US should become a Member. A publishing deal changes who that is, so read your contract before joining.
How to join and register your songs
- Sign up for The MLC Portal on themlc.com. It is free. You share your personal details so they can verify your identity, then choose a username and password.
- Tell them your role: the Member Hub is for whoever collects the royalties; the Songwriter Hub, for songwriters whose publisher collects for them.
- Complete your Member profile with your payment and tax details, so The MLC can pay you.
- Register every song with its exact title, every co-writer and the shares from your split sheet. The shares registered by all the owners have to add up; if they don’t, the money can be held.
- Link each song to its recordings with the ISRC: services report recordings, and The MLC only pays once it can match the recording to your song.
- Search the public database (Public Work Search) to check that your songs and shares appear the way you registered them.
Do it when you release, not years later. The full release timeline is in the release planning checklist, and how to register the song as a work is in how to copyright a song.
When it pays
- Services report and pay The MLC by the 45th day after the end of each month of use.
- The MLC sends statements and payments to its Members monthly, about 75 days after the end of each calendar month.
- Royalties are calculated with the statutory rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board, and the statements show what came from each service and each song.
Publishers that pay several writers need to pass those statements on song by song. TONTRIA for Publishers keeps works, writers and splits in one place to prepare them.
Unclaimed royalties
When The MLC can’t match a use to a song, or can’t find its owner, it keeps the money and keeps trying to match it. The Music Modernization Act requires it to hold those unclaimed accrued royalties for at least three years. After that, they are paid out in a market share distribution: shared among the songs that same service did pay for, in proportion to their usage, so it goes to other owners and not to the songwriter who never registered.
The MLC plans its first market share distribution for April 2027, starting with uses from January 2021, one month at a time. So a song streamed in early 2021 and never registered has only months left before that money goes to others. The Missing Member Lookup on themlc.com lets you search your name.
The MLC in numbers
According to its press release of September 30, 2026: more than USD 4,200 million in royalties distributed, a match rate above 92% for the royalties processed, more than 100,000 Members and more than 60 million works in its public database. Of the historical unmatched royalties the services handed over when it started, it has distributed nearly USD 239 million, more than 60%.