Guides

CWR for The MLC

The MLC administers mechanical rights in United States. The Mechanical Licensing Collective, payer of US streaming mechanicals.

History

Created by the Music Modernization Act of 2018 and operational since January 2021, The MLC administers the blanket mechanical license for US audio streaming and runs the public database that matches usage to ownership — the answer to a decade of unmatched 'black box' streaming royalties.

CWR at The MLC

The MLC is the rare society that was CWR-native from birth: it accepted CWR bulk registrations from day one, alongside its own spreadsheet formats. One documented rule matters: a CWR registration must cover all mechanical usage types — partial coverage needs a conversation with The MLC first.

Publishers deliver CWR files to The MLC directly (as members, affiliates, or sub-publishers). Like nearly every CISAC society, The MLC works in the CWR 2.1 / 2.2 era — the versions in production use worldwide since the standard displaced the proprietary registration formats of the 1990s. Per-society delivery profiles do change, so confirm the current version and any local quirks before a first delivery.

Related societies

ASCAP · BMI · CMRRA

More: which societies accept CWR · what a CWR file is · files bound for The MLC can be checked free on the validator. The MLC is an independent organization; CWR Check is not affiliated with it.

Check a CWR file free — errors and warnings tied to the exact line, nothing stored: cwrcheck.com.