You may have been reading lately about the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) that launched on Jan. 1, 2021. Provided you’re a client of SOCAN for reproduction rights, and have granted us the right to collect in the U.S on your behalf, SOCAN has you covered.
The MLC was created to issue mechanical (also known as reproduction) licenses to eligible streaming and download services in the United States, and to distribute those royalties to stakeholders, like SOCAN, on behalf of their reproduction rights clients. The MLC will be processing trillions of pieces of data, including data associated with significant monies in unclaimed royalties from performances that could not be matched previously to the correct rights holders. The centralized database is designed to make efficient matching and distribution of current and future royalties a reality.
SOCAN has been collecting international reproduction royalties for a long time through agencies such as Harry Fox Agency and MRI and has now added the MLC as a partner. If you’re a SOCAN reproduction rights client, we already have your data and are working closely with the MLC to ensure the smooth transition of your works information into their systems.
We’re excited by the new relationship with the MLC to get you the mechanical rights royalties you’ve earned. It will take time for the MLC to ingest all the data. They expect to process their first distribution in the second quarter of 2021.
It’s important that all music creators’ works are represented in the MLC database accurately and thoroughly so that they can receive all the money that they’ve earned, or will earn, in the U.S. from reproductions of their music. Provided you’re a client of SOCAN for reproduction rights and have granted SOCAN the right to collect in the U.S on your behalf, you’re covered.
What more can you do as a SOCAN member?
- Make sure you’re a SOCAN Reproduction Rights client. If you’re a publisher or a self-published writer, and you aren’t yet a SOCAN reproduction rights client, contact us at reproduction@socan.com to see if your catalogue, or part of your catalogue, is eligible for representation by SOCAN. **Important SOCAN can only represent you for works for which you are the copyright owner, whether in part or wholly-owned.
- Ensure all of your works are registered and up-to-date in SOCAN’s system here. If any of your works are missing or if you need access credentials, contact reproduction@socan.com.
- Check that you’ve granted SOCAN a license to collect your reproduction rights in the United States. If you’re not sure, or would like more information, or have any questions ,contact us at reproduction@socan.com.