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A step-by-step guide on how to receive songwriting royalties

The Mechanical Licensing Collective pays royalties monthly to songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers. It’s free to join, and it distributes 100 percent of the royalties collected on your behalf.

Dan Ray November 30, 2021
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A step-by-step guide on how to receive songwriting royalties November 30, 2021

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

If you have recorded music on streaming services, chances are you’re bringing your music to those platforms through a music distributor like Distrokid or CD Baby. When your music is streamed, the distributor collects payment — royalties — on your music and pays you in turn. According to Investopedia, a royalty is “an amount paid by a third party to an owner of a product or patent for the use of that product or patent.” In other words, streaming services are using a product you own, so they’re required to pay you for it.

According to the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), a nonprofit designed by the U.S. Copyright Office, most distributors only pay artist royalties, when there are three kinds: artist royalties, songwriter royalties, and performance royalties. 

Royalties can get complicated, but the MLC breaks down those three categories like this: Artist royalties are paid to distributors, performance royalties are paid to performing rights organizations like BMI and ASCAP, and songwriter royalties are paid to music rights organizations like the MLC. These organizations then pay their members the money they are owed. 

The MLC pays digital mechanical royalties (royalties paid to songwriters for online streaming) monthly to songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers. It’s free to join, and the organization distributes 100 percent of the royalties collected on your behalf.

Want to learn more about royalties? Check out this article from Soundcharts. Ready to join the MLC? Follow our step-by-step guide below.

Step 1: Go to the MLC’s Connect to Collect page, scroll to the bottom, and click “Connect to Collect”

Step 2: Register for an account

Fill in your information to register for an account. After you register, the MLC will email you an activation link. Check your email, click the link, and set your password.

Step 3: Log in to the portal

Once you set your password, log in to your account. The MLC uses two-factor authentication, so you’ll need to check your email for a one-time code after you enter your username and password.

Step 4: Create a member

After you log in, you’ll see a pop-up to either view your portal or create a member. Create a member by clicking “Start registration” and following the steps. This makes your profile in the MLC database, which will allow you to register songs you own the mechanical rights to. 

To create a member, you’ll need to verify you don’t have any other organizations collecting digital audio mechanical royalties on your behalf. If you don’t, you’ll see a message stating you’re eligible to become an MLC member.

Step 5: Complete registration

Complete your registration, and you’ll see a message saying your registration is processing. You’ll receive an email in 1-3 business days with instructions on how to proceed.

Step 6: Register your songs

After your account is approved, log in to the portal to register your songs. When you log in, at the bottom of the screen you’ll see an option to “View Member.” Click that to go to your member dashboard. From here, you can view your currently registered works, your royalties statements, and register new works.

To register a new work, click “Register Individual Work” on the left hand sidebar. The database will guide you through the registration process, including verifying the work doesn’t already exist in the system, adding writers and publishers, and uploading any recordings.

Repeat this step for as many songs as you’d like to register.

Step 7: Enter your banking information

Now that your songs are registered, the MLC will start collecting royalties on your behalf. In order to receive them, you’ll need to enter your banking information.

Scroll to the bottom of the page on your member dashboard and click “Banking Information” under the “Member Settings” heading on the left hand sidebar. Fill out the forms, including your contact information, preferred payment method, and tax forms.

Step 8: Get royalties

That’s it! You’ll now receive monthly payments for the digital mechanical royalties on your registered works. Don’t forget to continue to register your new works as you create them. 

Still have questions? For more information, visit the MLC’s website.

Enjoy this content? Consider becoming a monthly Patron.

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Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).