The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), the entity that collects mechanical royalties in the US, has announced it has distributed nearly $2.5 billion in royalties since it began operations three-and-a-half years ago. That’s up by roughly $1 billion in just the past year (The MLC reported in October 2023 that it had distributed $1.5bn in royalties) and up by almost $500 million since March, Source: The MLC nears $2.5bn in royalty distributions to songwriters and publishers since 2021