It’s hard to believe The MLC’s first year of operations is coming to a close! I’m grateful for all of the support and assistance
we’ve received from our Board and Committee Members, our stakeholders, our team and – most of all – our Members.
Together, we were able to achieve a number of important milestones this year, including launching full operations on January 1, 2021; growing the number of musical works in our public database by almost 40%; more than doubling our Membership; completing nine monthly royalty distributions on-time or early and distributing more than $280 million in digital audio mechanical royalties to our Members. In short, we began turning the promise of the landmark Music Modernization Act into reality.
On behalf of everyone associated with The MLC, thank you for being active and engaged participants in our work in 2021 and for continuing to “Play Your Part” to help us fulfill our important mission. We’re excited to continue our work in 2022. Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!
January 1, 2022 will mark one full year since The MLC officially began operations. Here are some of the notable highlights of our work over the past year:
We hosted or participated in more than 150 webinars, which collectively engaged more than 12,500 attendees;
We more than doubled our Membership to more than 16,000 Members;
We added more than six million musical works to our database – an increase of nearly 40 percent – bringing the total number of works in our database to well over 23 million;
We successfully onboarded more than 40 digital service providers (DSPs) as blanket licensees, almost all of which are now regularly sending The MLC royalties and accompanying data each month;
We completed nine monthly royalty distributions – all on time or ahead of schedule – and paid out more than $280 million in digital audio mechanical royalties to our Members;
We received more than $424 million in historical unmatched royalties and roughly 4,000 files of accompanying data from 21 DSPs, which we have now begun to process with a view toward beginning to distribute these royalties in 2022;
We fielded more than 23,500 calls and emails this year – an average of almost 2,000 a month and more than 60 a day.
Matching Tool
The Matching Tool allows Members to search the data for sound recording uses The MLC has not yet matched to one of the musical works in our database and propose matches for those uses with works
those Members have registered. Providing our Members with an easy, streamlined way to propose these matches not only enables The MLC to pay out accrued blanket royalties, but it will also enable us pay out more historical unmatched royalties once we begin processing those royalties in the new year. In the short time that the Matching Tool has been available, Members have already proposed more than 10,000 potential matches. You can check out this archived webinar from November to learn more about the Matching Tool or click here for a quick demo video.
Top Unmatched Sound Recording Uses List
Members of The MLC also now have the ability to receive a monthly list of our Top 1,000 Unmatched Sound Recording Uses based on their calculated royalty value. This list provides Members with another way
they can access and review The MLC’s unmatched sound recording data in order to identify any uses that feature their musical works. The list is distributed via e-mail in an Excel file for ease of use. Members of The MLC can sign up to receive the list by clicking here.
Missing Member Lookup Tool
Rightsholders who are not already Members of The MLC but believe they may be eligible to receive digital audio mechanical royalties* can now see if The MLC has accrued royalties for them by using our new
“Missing Member Lookup” Tool, available here on our website. Rightsholders can quickly and easily search for their given name or the name through which they normally collect royalties, and if their name appears, they can immediately begin the process of becoming a Member of The MLC to receive the royalties we have accrued for them.
*This list only contains rightsholders for whom The MLC has accrued blanket royalties; it does not list rightsholders for whom The MLC may have received historical unmatched royalties.
The Support Team is available Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. CT. Please note that The MLC Support Team will have abbreviated hours during the Holidays.
Wednesday, December 22: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. CT
Thursday, December 23: 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. CT
Friday, December 24 - Sunday, January 2:Closed
Monday, January 3: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. CT (normal business hours resume)
The Mechanical Licensing Collective, 333 11th Avenue South, Suite 200, Nashville, TN 37203, United States, 615-488-3653
