The Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, is now trumpeting cumulative payouts of more than $1 billion to songwriters, publishers, and other compositional IP owners since its formal inception in 2020. That heady payout, however, is being rivaled by unallocated ‘black box’ royalty accounts that may also be approaching the $1 billion threshold. MLC chief executive Kris Ahrend has declined multiple requests by Digital Music News to clarify the specific black box amounts held by the organization.
