MLC Royalties

What it does

MLC Royalties checks a music catalog against The Mechanical Licensing Collective database to identify unclaimed or unmatched mechanical royalties. Users paste a Spotify link or search by artist name to see which recordings are registered, matched across platforms, or sitting in the unallocated "black box."

The tool categorizes each song into five statuses: fully claimed, needs platform matching, has missing shares, fully unclaimed, or missing from the MLC database entirely. It estimates what money is at risk by showing which tracks have not been properly registered or matched.

Who it is for

This targets independent musicians, songwriters, and music publishers who earn mechanical royalties through streaming. Anyone who has released music on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, or other platforms and receives publishing payments through The MLC is a potential user. The tool serves creators concerned about lost revenue from unmatched or unclaimed compositions.

Pricing

Free, no signup required.

How it stands out

The tool addresses a specific structural problem in music royalties: The MLC holds over $656 million in unclaimed mechanical royalties. Starting in January 2027, unmatched money older than a certain threshold will be distributed by market share to publishers already collecting, making it permanently inaccessible to creators who haven't claimed it. This creates urgent pressure to use the tool before that deadline passes.

The interface is straightforward—paste a Spotify link and get instant visibility into catalog status. It explains the four failure modes clearly and provides the industry context around the black box and the 2018 Music Modernization Act that created The MLC.

What a founder should check

Anyone building a competitor should verify how The MLC's API or data access works. The tool requires current MLC database information, so understanding whether The MLC provides direct access, whether that access could be restricted, or whether this depends on scraping or third-party data feeds is critical.

Second, check the actual switching cost for users. Many musicians may not know unclaimed royalties exist, so adoption depends heavily on education and word-of-mouth. Understand whether the free model creates sufficient stickiness or whether users drift away after one check.

Third, investigate the regulatory landscape. The MLC is a nonprofit controlled by the music industry. Any business model that relies on their data or processes may face pressure as they build their own tools or tighten API access if a commercial competitor emerges.