May 5, 2021
The MLC is Sitting On $423 Million, How Songwriters Can Claim It
The New Music Business with Ari HerstandAbout this episode
Kris Ahrend is the CEO of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). This is the organization that was set up and appointed by Congress by the Copyright Office after the Music Modernization Act was signed into law. They officially went into effect in January of 2021. What the MLC does is collect mechanical royalties from streaming services in the United States. These are just royalties for songwriters. The DSPs pay the MLC and the MLC pays the rights holders. Article: https://aristake.com/songwriters-claim-mlc-money/ MLC's website: https://www.themlc.com/ 4:35 - What is the MLC and what do they do? 8:00 - Mechanical royalties and PROs, and where does the Harry Fox Agency play into everything? 14:50 - What is the statutory rate? 17:03 - How to find how much you've earned in mechanical royalties through the MLC 18:50 - Why you don't need the MLC if you have an admin publisher 21:08 - Why BMI, SESAC, ASCAP, or GMR is not enough to collect all of your royalties 24:30 - International mechanical royalties 26:47 - How much money is being lost to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC's commissions? 32:30 - The MLC and admin publishers 34:58 - Where does the data in the public search feature come from? 39:20 - The MLC has $430 million in unpaid royalties 46:47 - Additional sources where the MLC gets its data 50:10 - How much it costs to register with the MLC 51:43 - Who calculates the data and royalty amounts? 54:30 - Historical royalties from the DSPs 57:58 - Different types of publishers the MLC lists in their database 1:03:45 - How to search MLC's database by song title 1:07:11 - How long you have to collect your royalties from the MLC Connect with Ari’s Take: Website: https://aristake.com Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aristake/ Connect with Ari Herstand: Website: https://ariherstand.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand YouTube: https://youtube.com/ariherstand Facebook: https://facebook.com/ariherstand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.