March 24, 2026

What Are Mechanical Royalties? A Guide for Artists

Every time your song plays on Spotify, Apple Music, or any streaming platform, two separate royalty payments are generated. Most independent artists know about one of them - the payment their distributor collects and deposits into their account. The other, the mechanical royalty, often goes completely uncollected because songwriters either don’t know it exists or assume their distributor is handling it.

It isn’t.

Mechanical royalties flow through an entirely different pipeline, administered by a different organization, requiring its own registration. If you’ve been releasing music without setting that up, you’ve been leaving a meaningful portion of your streaming income on the table - and depending on how long your catalog has been active, some of that money may already be approaching an expiration date.

This guide explains what mechanical royalties are, how they work, what the current rates are, and the exact steps to start collecting what you’re owed.

The Royalty Most Artists Are Missing

When someone streams a self-written song, the payment splits three ways:

Master recording royalties (collected by your distributor)
Performance royalties (collected by your PRO)
Mechanical royalties (collected by the MLC — only if you’re registered)

Without MLC registration, roughly one-third of your total streaming royalties go uncollected.

Defining Mechanical Royalties in the Modern Music Industry

Mechanical royalties originate from the reproduction and distribution of a musical composition. The term dates back to the era of player pianos, when a “mechanical” device would reproduce a song from a perforated roll. The underlying legal concept has remained the same ever since: whenever someone reproduces your composition, the composition rights holder is owed a royalty.

Today that applies to vinyl records, CDs, digital downloads, and - most relevantly for modern artists - on-demand streaming. Every time a listener presses play on Spotify, a mechanical royalty is triggered.

Composition Copyright vs. Sound Recording Copyright

Every recorded song contains two distinct copyrights that operate independently of each other.

The sound recording copyright (the “master”) protects the specific recorded performance - the particular way the song was performed and captured on a specific occasion.

The composition copyright protects the underlying song itself: the melody, lyrics, and musical arrangement - the thing that exists regardless of who performs it.

When you write and record your own music, you own both copyrights. Mechanical royalties flow specifically from the composition copyright. This is the critical reason your distributor - which operates on the master recording side - cannot collect mechanical royalties for you. They are working in an entirely different part of the royalty system.

The Right to Reproduce and Distribute

A mechanical royalty is triggered whenever someone reproduces and distributes your composition. Pressing a CD requires a mechanical license. Selling a digital download requires one. Streaming a song on demand requires one. The entity doing the reproducing - the streaming platform, the CD manufacturer, the download store - pays this royalty to the composition rights holder.

Before 2021, this system was fragmented and often broke down for independent artists. Streaming services frequently couldn’t identify who owned the compositions they were streaming, and the royalties accumulated in an unmatched pool. The Music Modernization Act created a central solution to this problem.

Mechanical vs. Performance Royalties - Understanding the Difference

The difference between mechanical and performance royalties trips up even experienced artists, because both involve the same song playing in the same moment. The distinction lies in what legal right is being exercised.

When Each Type of Royalty Is Triggered

Performance royalties are generated when a song is publicly performed or broadcast - radio airplay, live concerts, television broadcasts, and the public performance component of streaming. Your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) handles these.

Mechanical royalties are generated when a song is reproduced. Manufacturing a CD, selling a download, or streaming on demand all involve reproducing the composition, which triggers the mechanical right.

A single Spotify play actually triggers both simultaneously - a performance royalty that goes to your PRO and a mechanical royalty that goes to the MLC. Two separate payments, two separate organizations, two separate registrations required.

Who Collects Each Revenue Stream

Understanding who handles what makes the registration requirements much clearer:

Royalty Type	Who Collects It	Who Gets Paid If Unregistered
Master recording royalty	Your distributor	Nobody — it’s lost
Performance royalty	Your PRO (ASCAP/BMI)	Nobody — it’s lost
Mechanical royalty	The MLC	Major publishers

The key takeaway from that table: mechanical royalties are the only major royalty stream where uncollected funds actively get redistributed to someone else. When performance royalties go uncollected, they simply aren’t paid out. When mechanical royalties go uncollected at the MLC, they eventually get pooled and distributed to major publishers based on market share. Your money goes to Universal, Sony, or Warner.

Current Statutory Mechanical Royalty Rates for 2025

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) sets statutory mechanical rates in the United States - the minimum payment required for each reproduction of a composition.

Physical Media and Permanent Downloads

For physical formats (vinyl, CDs, cassettes) and permanent digital downloads, the current statutory rate is 12 cents per song for tracks five minutes or shorter. Songs exceeding five minutes are paid at 2.31 cents per minute. These are minimum rates - licenses can be negotiated above the statutory floor, but the statutory rate applies by default.

If someone purchases your four-minute song as a digital download on iTunes, the composition earns 12 cents in mechanical royalties regardless of what the buyer paid for it.

The Phonorecords IV Determination and Streaming Rate Increases

The Phonorecords IV ruling established a schedule of mechanical rate increases for streaming through 2027. Rather than a flat per-stream fee, streaming mechanical rates are calculated as a percentage of streaming service revenue allocated to the mechanical royalty pool.

For 2025, the applicable rate has increased from prior years as part of the Phonorecords IV schedule - one of the most significant rate increases independent songwriters have seen in years. This means streaming services are paying a larger share of their revenue toward mechanical royalties than at any previous point, making it a particularly important time to have your MLC registration in order.

How to Collect Mechanical Royalties from Streaming

Why On-Demand Streaming Triggers a Mechanical Royalty (But Radio Doesn’t)

Traditional terrestrial radio does not pay mechanical royalties. Broadcasting a song is a public performance - it triggers performance royalties collected by your PRO, but not mechanicals. No reproduction occurs in the legal sense that creates a mechanical obligation.

On-demand streaming is different because the listener controls the playback. When someone presses play on Spotify, the platform makes a reproduction of your composition to deliver that specific stream. That reproduction triggers the mechanical right, which is why Spotify - and every other on-demand streaming platform - pays both performance and mechanical royalties while radio pays only performance royalties.

Why Your Distributor Is Not Collecting This for You

DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, and every major distributor handle the sound recording side of your streaming royalties. They deliver your recordings to platforms, collect the master recording royalty, and deposit it into your account. That is their function, and they do it well.

The composition royalty - including mechanical royalties - flows through a completely different system. Your distributor has no relationship with the MLC, no ability to register your compositions, and no mechanism to claim your mechanical royalties. Unless you have a publishing administrator who handles this or you’re registered with the MLC yourself, those royalties are not reaching you.

Already Releasing Music? This Is Urgent.

If you’ve been releasing music without MLC registration, mechanical royalties from your streaming activity have been accumulating as unmatched funds. The MLC holds those funds for a period before redistributing them — but that holding period has a deadline.

The longer you wait to register, the more of your historical royalties may expire before you can claim them.

Learn about the deadline and what’s at risk →

Registering with the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)

The Mechanical Licensing Collective was established under the Music Modernization Act of 2018 as the central US body for collecting and distributing mechanical royalties from interactive streaming. Registration is free. There is no revenue split or admin fee taken from your royalties. The MLC is funded by licensing fees paid by streaming services, not by rights holders.

The Purpose of the MLC in the United States

Before the MLC launched in 2021, streaming services struggled to identify and pay songwriters directly, resulting in billions of dollars in unmatched royalties sitting in a black box pool. The MLC now acts as the hub: streaming services pay a blanket license to the MLC, the MLC attempts to match those payments to registered compositions, and distributes royalties to songwriters and publishers. It’s the central infrastructure that makes streaming mechanical royalty collection possible at scale.

The Fastest Way to Register Your Catalog

Instead of registering song-by-song across multiple portals, Mogul connects to your catalog, identifies every missing registration across the MLC, SoundExchange, and more, and bulk-registers everything in a single workflow. No manual metadata entry, no spreadsheets, no chasing down ISRC codes.

Get started at app.usemogul.com/simple-audit →

Prefer to Register Manually? Here’s How

Go to themlc.com and create a free account. Use your legal name exactly as it appears on your other music registrations - consistency in spelling, including middle initials, prevents the matching failures that are the most common cause of missing royalties.

Create your account at themlc.com using your legal name
Register your publishing entity - even if you self-publish, you need to register as a publisher to collect the publisher’s share (50% of total mechanical royalties)
Add your catalog - enter song titles, co-writer information, and ownership percentages for each composition
Link recordings to compositions - connect your ISRC codes (the recording identifier) to your ISWC codes (the composition identifier) for each song
Verify your splits - ownership percentages must add up to exactly 100% for both writer share and publisher share

The more complete your metadata, the more accurately the MLC’s system can match your compositions to streaming activity. Incomplete registrations don’t just slow down payments - they result in royalties sitting in the unmatched pool and counting toward the expiration clock.

Claiming Historical Unpaid Royalties

After registering your catalog, the MLC automatically attempts to match your compositions against their pool of historical unmatched royalties. This pool includes funds from before the MLC’s 2021 launch - legacy royalties that were collected but never matched to their rightful owners.

Successful matches mean retroactive payments: royalties from streams that happened before you registered, paid out once the match is confirmed. Artists who registered early in the MLC’s existence and had substantial streaming history sometimes received significant one-time payments from historical matching.

Check What’s Waiting for You — In Under 5 Minutes

Mogul’s catalog audit scans your music against the MLC, SoundExchange, and other collection societies simultaneously — identifying every missing registration and flagging royalties already sitting in the unmatched pool. Instead of searching databases one at a time, you get a complete picture of every royalty stream your catalog is generating and every gap that’s costing you money.

Run your audit at app.usemogul.com/simple-audit →

What Happens to Mechanical Royalties You Never Claimed

This is the part most royalty guides skip over - and it’s the most financially consequential thing to understand.

The 3-Year Deadline Before Your Money Disappears

Unclaimed mechanical royalties don’t wait for you indefinitely. The MLC holds unmatched royalties for a period while attempting to identify the rightful owners. After that window closes on a specific distribution, those funds are liquidated and redistributed to registered publishers based on their proportional market share.

In plain terms: if you don’t claim your mechanical royalties before the deadline, major publishers collect them instead. It’s a structural feature of how the system works, and it means independent artists who delay registration are effectively subsidizing the catalogues of Universal, Sony, and Warner.

⚠️ The Clock Is Running on Your Back Catalog

The three-year holding period under the Music Modernization Act is already counting down on royalties your songs may have earned. Artists who released music before registering with the MLC are most at risk. Read the full breakdown →

How to Find Out If You Have Unclaimed Royalties Right Now

The MLC maintains a public database of unmatched works searchable by song title, ISRC, or songwriter name. If your compositions appear in that database as unmatched, registering and claiming them directs those royalties to you before the redistribution deadline.

Artists who released music before 2021 - before the MLC launched - should search this database as a priority. The pre-MLC era generated substantial unmatched royalties that are still working through the matching system, and some may have a shorter runway before expiration.

What Your Distributor Covers (and What It Doesn’t)

The Royalty Split on Every Stream Most Artists Don’t Know About

When someone streams a self-written song, the total payment from the platform splits roughly as follows:

~65% to the sound recording rights holder collected by your distributor (this is what most artists see in their earnings reports)
~17% to the composition rights holder as performance royalties collected by your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC)
~18% to the composition rights holder as mechanical royalties collected by the MLC - only if you’re registered

If you only have a distributor, you’re collecting roughly two-thirds of what your streams generate. The remaining third - performance royalties and mechanicals combined - requires separate registrations to access.

How to Make Sure You’re Collecting Everything You’re Owed

Complete royalty collection as an independent artist requires three core registrations:

A distributor for master recording royalties - DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, or similar
A PRO for performance royalties - ASCAP or BMI for most independent artists
The MLC for mechanical royalties - free registration at themlc.com

Beyond registration, metadata consistency is the most important operational factor. Your songwriter name, ownership splits, ISRC codes, and ISWC codes need to match exactly across every platform and registration. A single inconsistency - a hyphenated name on one platform, a spelling variation at another - can prevent the matching algorithms from connecting your compositions to the royalties they’ve generated.

Stop Leaving One-Third of Your Streaming Income on the Table

Mogul finds your missing registrations, identifies unclaimed royalties, and bulk-registers your catalog across every collection society — in under 5 minutes.

Run Your Catalog Audit →

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a music publisher to collect mechanical royalties?

No. You can register directly with the MLC as both songwriter and self-publisher, which allows you to collect 100% of your mechanical royalties without giving up any share to a traditional publisher. If you do have a publishing deal or a publishing administrator, they typically handle MLC registration on your behalf - but you should verify your works are actually in the system.

How are streaming mechanical royalties actually calculated?

Streaming mechanicals are not a flat per-stream rate. They’re calculated as a percentage of streaming service revenue allocated to the mechanical royalty pool under the Phonorecords IV determination. Your specific payment per stream depends on total platform revenue, the size of the total mechanical royalty pool for the period, and the proportion of streams your compositions represent. Because these variables shift every quarter, there is no fixed “rate per stream” - only the percentage formula established by the CRB.

Can I collect mechanical royalties for songs I wrote but didn’t record?

Yes. If you wrote a song that was recorded and released by another artist, you are entitled to mechanical royalties as the composition copyright holder. You would register the composition with the MLC using your songwriter information, and mechanical royalties from all recordings and streams of that song would flow to you based on your ownership percentage.

What is an ISWC and do I need one to register with the MLC?

An ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) is a unique identifier for a musical composition - essentially the composition equivalent of an ISRC. You do not need an ISWC to register with the MLC, but having one strengthens the matching accuracy of your registration. ISWCs are assigned by PROs and publishers. If your PRO has already assigned one to your works, include it in your MLC registration.

If I register with the MLC now, can I still claim royalties from past streams?

Yes, within limits. The MLC holds unmatched royalties and attempts retroactive matching after you register. Royalties from streams that occurred before your registration - but are still within the holding period - can potentially be matched and paid to you. However, royalties from distributions that have already passed their holding period cannot be recovered. This is why registering sooner rather than later matters. For a full explanation of the holding period and its implications, see: The 3-Year Music Royalty Deadline You Don’t Know About.

Does the MLC cover international mechanical royalties?

The MLC administers mechanical royalties for streaming activity in the United States only. International mechanical royalties are administered by equivalent organizations in each country - the MCPS in the UK, GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France, and so on. For independent artists seeking international mechanical royalty collection, a publishing administrator with international reach or direct registration with international societies is required.

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What Are Mechanical Royalties? A Guide for Artists

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What Are Mechanical Royalties? A Guide for Artists

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