In our final Quarter Note of the year, we’re excited to tell you about our latest tech innovations. We also share a recap of our Annual Membership Meeting, plus an overview of how The MLC empowers rightsholders to turn transparency into action.
In our final Quarter Note of the year, we’re excited to tell you about our latest tech innovations. We also share a recap of our Annual Membership Meeting, plus an overview of how The MLC empowers rightsholders to turn transparency into action.
As we wrap up 2025, we want to wish all of you a happy holiday season and a joyful start to the new year.
The MLC continues to focus on building tools that support rightsholders and streamline key processes. This fall, we introduced two new releases — the Songwriter Hub and the Catalog Transfer Tool.
The MLC Songwriter Hub
In October, we launched our new Songwriter Hub. Designed for songwriters with a publisher or administrator, the Songwriter Hub provides an easy way for songwriters to view, organize, and manage their song data with The MLC.
Using the Catalog Builder, songwriters can search all the ways their name appears in The MLC’s database and compile a complete list (aka catalog) of their songs. Once the catalog is built, it can be downloaded on demand in an Excel-compatible file using the Catalog Export Tool. This gives writers a clear view of the data we have for their songs and makes it simple to share their full catalog with their publisher or administrator so they can make sure all of their songs are accounted for.
In addition, songwriters can easily explore co-writer connections, submit correction requests for writer names or IPI numbers, and use the Matching Tool to search unmatched sound recordings and suggest matches to songs in their catalog.
The Songwriter Hub also supports Members of The MLC who self-administer some songs, but have a publisher or administer managing others. It offers visibility into those published works, and tools to help keep their catalog accurate and organized.
To find out how songwriters can sign up, click here. And check out our new YouTube video to learn more!
The Catalog Transfer Tool
In November, we launched the Catalog Transfer Tool, the latest addition to our suite of Member tools. Sometimes, Members may need to acquire or relinquish rights for a collection of musical works, which is referred to as a "catalog transfer."
The new Catalog Transfer Tool streamlines the process by allowing Members to easily transfer catalogs between publishers, submit all required information and documentation, and view a dashboard of submitted requests and track their status — all in one place.
Earlier in the fall, we held our Annual Membership Meeting. Here’s a look at some of the key metrics and milestones we shared. As of October 1:
The MLC had completed 54 monthly royalty distributions, all on time or early.
The MLC had processed more than $3.9 billion in total royalties and achieved total royalties distributed of more than $3.3 billion.
The MLC had distributed more than $227 million in historical royalties — more than 57% of the total amount of historical unmatched royalties DSPs were unable to match and distribute before transferring them to The MLC.
The MLC had enrolled more than 68,000 Members, adding more than 18,000 in 2025.
The MLC had compiled data for more than 50 million works in its public database, with more than 6 million new works added in 2025.
The MLC’s match rate for all royalties processed through September’s royalty distribution was nearly 92 percent.
The MLC continues its extensive outreach and educational efforts aimed at reaching the full cross-section of the rightsholder community, with more than 1,000 events attended since its inception — including nearly 200 events in 2025 alone.
The MLC continues to enhance its growing suite of tools that enable Members to register works, claim their shares of previously registered works, submit proposed matches of their works to unmatched usage, and more.
The MLC also announced the re-selection of Kara DioGuardi as a Songwriter Director of the Board, the re-election of Tim Cohan as a Publisher Director of the Board, and the election of Lidia Kim as a Publisher Director of the Board.
Since we began operations in January 2021, The MLC has made transparency a priority. We’re proud to provide rightsholders with unprecedented access to the data we have compiled for their works, whether it be through the Public Work Search on our website or via the Catalog Export Tool in The MLC Portal. And because DSPs cover all of The MLC’s operating costs, The MLC can offer this access to song data completely free of charge.
We’ve also built a growing suite of easy-to-use tools that empower Members to search for and review their data, resolve any discrepancies they find, propose matches between recordings and their songs, and submit claims for missing shares of works registered by others. We’ve made it easier for Members to see, manage, and address certain conflicts and disputes involving other Members (through our Overclaims Tool), and we've just launched our new Catalog Transfer Tool to help Members manage catalog transfers. In addition, our new Songwriter Hub now offers songwriters who have a publisher or administrator a suite of tools they can use to view and manage their data — again, completely free of charge.
Together, this combination of transparency and tools has enabled The MLC to achieve historically high match rates, while drastically reducing the amount of unmatched works in our database. Moreover, these tools have helped rightsholders prioritize their highest value works, ensuring they receive the highest possible return on the investment of time they take when using our tools. As a result, for 95% of the remaining unmatched sound recording resources in The MLC's database, the cumulative value of the mechanical royalties we have accrued for those resources since we began operations is less than $1, and the average cumulative value of the mechanical royalties we have accrued for each of those remaining unmatched resources is between 5 and 6 cents.
We’ve also increased transparency by offering unprecedented access to our data through our Bulk Data Access Subscription program and Public Search API. These programs — which complement the free access we provide to Members and songwriters — offer organizations and individuals unprecedented access to all of the musical works ownership data we have in our public database, all of the data for the sound recording resources DSPs have reported to us, and all of the matches we have made between those works and resources — all for only $25 a month. Hundreds of companies are now using The MLC’s public data to support their own operations and to power new services.
At The MLC, transparency isn’t just a principle — it’s central to how we empower rightsholders to get paid. As the only organization authorized to pay U.S. digital audio mechanical royalties, we’re committed to helping rightsholders get every dollar they’re owed and we look forward to continuing to fulfill that mission in the year to come.
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