The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is the US non-profit established by the Music Modernization Act of 2018 to collect and distribute mechanical royalties from digital streaming services to songwriters and music publishers. It began operations in 2021 and is the only entity authorized to issue blanket mechanical licenses to digital service providers (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.) for songs played in the US.

Every songwriter whose works are streamed in the US is owed mechanical royalties by The MLC, regardless of PRO affiliation. Mechanical royalties average ~$0.0003 per US stream — small per-stream, meaningful at scale.

Songwriter membership in The MLC is free and registration takes ~30 minutes (see How to register with The MLC). The MLC pays monthly once accumulated royalties exceed $5.

A persistent issue is "unmatched" royalties — mechanical money The MLC holds because the works are not registered or have ambiguous writer/publisher info. Producer Tour's writer program handles MLC registration, claims, and unmatched-royalty recovery as part of its 20% commission.