Songwriters, artists: sign petition to support MLC to collect streaming royalties. Take action now!
Nashville, TN (February 4, 2019) – The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Songwriters of North America (SONA), National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), today unveiled broad endorsements for their industry-consensus Music Licensing Collective (MLC) submission to the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO).
The submission, which will be filed by March 21st, creates the collective required by the Music Modernization Act (MMA) to license and administer mechanical rights. Additionally, the groups announced the MLC Board and Committee appointments and launched a website for all of the songwriters and artists who support the MLC to sign an official petition: SupporttheMLC.com and a site for music publishers to add their endorsements: SongConnect.org.
“We’ve worked for decades for the benefits the MLC will bring songwriters/composers, including licensing their digital mechanical royalties at no cost since the streaming music companies have agreed to fund the collective.” – Steve Bogard, President, NSAI
Increased royalty payments from streaming services
Personal note: The Music Licensing Collective (MLC) needs your support to ensure its success on your behalf. It will create and maintain a thorough database of music composition copyrights (and the copyrights’ owners), collect mechanical royalties from digital music streaming services, and transmit those royalties to copyright holders based on the ownership claims set forth in the database.
Streaming services will pay mechanical royalties to the MLC based on the number of streams each song has racked up. This a major benefit for both artist and songwriters. The MLC will also set up a blanket mechanical license for streaming of music compositions, replacing the unwieldy Notice of Intention (NOI) that is currently filed when a streaming service cannot track down a copyright owner. This will result in significantly higher royalty payments for copyright holders in the MLC’s master database.*
All you have to do is join. And its free.
“The U.S. Copyright Office will choose who runs the MLC this Summer. The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), Songwriters of North America (SONA) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) helped passed the MUSIC MODERNIZATION ACT, working on the legislation for years. We are asking for your support for the MLC being created by us. We KNOW we can do the best job when it comes to licensing your songs and protecting your royalties because we’ve been doing it for decades.” – quote from the MLC website.
The Music Modernization Act (MMA) requires that the MLC is “endorsed by, and enjoys substantial support from, musical work copyright owners that together represent the greatest percentage of the licensor market.” Continue reading “Music Licensing Collective (MLC) needs songwriters’ support”
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That’s just a small taste of the 25+ news items in my January column, “Inside Track on Music Row” now posted at Nashville Music Guide. 
With all the songwriters on stage, (except John Mellencamp) it was ALL smiles across the stage with Jody Stevens, Craig Wiseman, Tommy Cecil, Jake Owen and David Ray and producer Joey Moi. The song echoes the feelings of John Mellencamp’s 1982 hit, “Jack and Diane.” Prior to release, Jake secured Mellencamp’s agreement to incorporate elements of the original song and Mellencamp receives a writer’s credit.
