Frequently Asked Questions

After you have established a login to the Portal, you will find helpful information in our Knowledge Base. If you need additional help, please contact The MLC Support Team here or call us at 615-488-3653 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time (excluding holidays).

Play Your Part™ means to help The MLC fulfill its important mission of paying royalties accurately and expeditiously for your benefit. 

For more information click here.

The only way to receive digital audio mechanical royalties due to you from DSPs pursuant to the compulsory blanket mechanical license is to register your works with The MLC.

There are several ways you can register your musical works with The MLC.

If you want to register one work at a time with us, you can do so directly within The MLC Portal. 

If you want to bulk register multiple musical works with us:

1. You can upload your bulk work registrations in The MLC Portal using the Bulk Work Registration file. Information about how to download, prepare and submit the Bulk Work Registration file is available within The MLC Portal. And you can click here to view a tutorial video that will guide you through the process.
2. You can send us a Common Works Registration (CWR) file. For more information about CWR Registration, please contact The MLC Support Team here.

You can register musical works on a mobile phone or tablet. The MLC portal has been designed to work on both desktop and mobile devices.  

When you register musical works with The MLC, you will not need to submit any audio files.

For music publishers who are affiliates of our administration vendor, HFA, you do not need to authorize HFA to share your musical works data with The MLC; we already have access to that data, and we will be using it as the starting point for The MLC’s musical works data.

There is no cost to register a musical work with The MLC.

Registering your musical works with The MLC does not replace other registration activities that a music publisher, administrator, or self-administered songwriter, composer, or lyricist should consider, such as registering their works with a performing rights organization in order to receive public performance royalties, or with the U.S. Copyright Office. For self-administered writers who are also recording artists, you should register your sound recordings with SoundExchange.

The screen text of The MLC Portal is in American English, however, a user of the Portal can enter data, such as musical works titles, in just about any language. 

The MLC Portal is accessible by clicking the grey “Portal Login” button in the upper right hand corner of our homepage, and is designed to work seamlessly on both desktop and mobile devices, making it accessible virtually anytime and anywhere via your phone, tablet or computer. 

If you need to become a Member of The MLC, click the blue Connect to Collect button in the upper right hand corner of our homepage to start the process.

The more information you provide us about sound recordings of your musical works, the more successful we will be at matching them to usage information reported to us by DSPs. You can provide us with the information when you register your musical works, or at a later time. You can submit any/all of the following information about sound recordings of your musical works: 

• Sound recording title
• Sound recording version title (if applicable, e.g. Club Remix)
• ISRC
• Recording Artist name
• Record Label name
• Duration (i.e. playing time)

You do not need to notify The MLC if your musical work is available on a digital music service. 

If you have assigned your rights to register your musical works and collect your mechanical royalties in the United States to a music publisher or administrator, you do not need to become a Member of The MLC. Your publisher or administrator will handle your collection and registration. If you work with a music publisher or administrator in any capacity, please check with that music publisher or administrator before becoming a Member of The MLC. 

Musical works which have been recorded and made available on interactive or permanent download audio digital service providers in the United States, and whose United States copyright protection has not expired, should be registered with The MLC. 

Each party who has the right to register their own musical works with The MLC, and collect their own mechanical royalties, should register their share of the work. For example, if there are two self-administered songwriters, composers, or lyricists who co-wrote a work, and each one has the right to register their own share, and collect mechanical royalties for their own share, then each party should become a Member of The MLC, and separately register their share of the work. To contrast this example with another, if co-writers create a legal entity, which they co-own, and which has been assigned the right to register the co-written musical work with The MLC, and collect the related mechanical royalties, then the legal entity will register 100% of the musical work and collect the royalties.