Illustration by Dan Page
The Mechanical Licensing Collective just started collecting and distributing mechanical royalties while managing new disagreements with streaming services about how much it s owed.
On Jan. 1, the Mechanical Licensing Collective officially began operations to collect and distribute mechanical royalties under a blanket license for streaming services. In preparations for its official launch, the Nashville-based nonprofit, led by CEO
Kris Ahrend, has hired 44 employees; contracted with companies to build technology to track ownership of 17.65 million musical compositions; developed a system to check the accuracy of its information; and participated in 100 online conferences to explain it all. In April, the MLC plans to start paying royalties to over 8,000 rights-holder members, who by spring should be able to review their ownership data and register new compositions through an online portal.