Last month, The MLC held its second Annual Membership meeting. During the meeting, we shared some of the key milestones we reached this year, reviewed a variety of performance metrics, and previewed our plans for 2023. While there is still more work to do, we are pleased with our progress and are deeply appreciative of all the support we have received from our Members and from the broader industry at large. We hope you’ll take the time to read about the latest news we announced and some of the new ways we are spreading the word about The MLC.
The MLC held its second Annual Membership Meeting on October 19, sharing key metrics from the last year and announcing that three current members of The MLC Board of Directors were each selected to serve a second three-year term on the Board. Their initial terms were slated to end this month.
In the year and a half since launching full operations, The MLC has met every milestone set by Congress in the Music Modernization Act of 2018 and successfully distributed nearly $700 million in blanket royalties to its Members. Highlights shared during the meeting by members of The MLC’s leadership team included the following key metrics:
The MLC has collected almost $1 billion in mechanical royalties.
As a result of The MLC’s efforts, rightsholders have received more than $800 million in royalties — nearly $700 million in blanket royalties distributed directly by The MLC and nearly $120 million in royalties (when valued at the statutory rates used by The MLC) processed by The MLC but paid by DSPs pursuant to voluntary licenses.
The MLC’s current match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution is 89 percent, while The MLC’s initial match rates for newly reported usage has exceeded 85 percent for six straight months.
The MLC now has more than 22,000 Members, having added more than 6,000 to date in 2022.
The MLC has received more than 17 million works registrations to date and has processed more than 98 percent of those registrations.
The MLC has completed 19 monthly royalty distributions to date, every one of which has been completed on time or early.
During the meeting, a representative from the accounting and audit firm, Withum, shared the results of The MLC’s recent Class B Board Seat election. Tim Cohan and Scott Cutler were each elected by The MLC’s Class B Members to serve as Board Directors for a second 3-year term. This announcement came at the end of a months-long election process that was administered by an outside firm, eBallot, and certified by Withum. The MLC’s Class A Members selected Kara DioGuardi to serve a second 3-year term as a Songwriter Director on the Board.
Finally, The MLC announced that the make-up of the Class C Members will not change in 2023, though Sony Music Publishing has selected Michael Abitbol to fill their Director seat, which was recently vacated by Peter Brodsky. Abitbol’s appointment by the Librarian of Congress is pending. More information on The MLC’s Board of Directors and Advisory Committees can be found here.
This fall, The MLC launched the Distributor Unmatched Recordings Portal (DURP), a new portal for independent music distributors to view releases with unclaimed royalties for their artists. The MLC worked closely with seven key independent music distributors to create this new portal that distributors can use to see the publicly available data for the unmatched recordings they’ve released. This allows them to work with their customers to register their songs with The MLC and claim any unmatched royalties for their songs that The MLC has accrued. This new Distributor Unmatched Recordings Portal (DURP) joins The MLC’s growing suite of tools that leverage The MLC’s publicly available data to improve data quality and fulfill The MLC’s mission to pay rightsholders their mechanical royalties accurately and on time.
This August, The MLC launched a new Student Ambassador program to complement its existing Educator Ambassador program. These programs allow qualified participants to earn an official designation, “MLC Ambassador,” by committing to share information about The MLC with their students or peers.
Building on The MLC’s ongoing outreach and education initiatives, such as its toolkit for educators, the Ambassador programs provide educators and college students with a framework to certify their expertise and educate others about The MLC, the benefits of MLC membership, and digital mechanicals. Approved Ambassadors gain access to digital resources, virtual and in-person events and training, and private online communities designed to support further learning and professional development. This is a voluntary program, and there are no geographic requirements or limitations or cost to participate.
