AllTrack, the newest of the five performing rights organisations in the US, has formally launched a mechanical rights division, allowing independent songwriters to collect more royalties via one platform.
That, AllTrack notes, makes it “the first and only PRO in the United States to offer integrated performance and mechanical rights collection services that music creators and publishers can manage through a single platform”.
The organisation’s founder and CEO, Hayden Bower, says that the expansion into mechanical rights “addresses the independent sector’s long-standing need for a simplified royalty collection process”, adding that, “AllTrack members can now receive the compensation they're entitled to faster and more efficiently than ever before”.
In Europe, most songwriter collecting societies, like SACEM and GEMA, represent both performing rights and mechanical rights on behalf of their members. However, in some countries, including the Anglo-American markets, there are different societies for the different components of the song copyright. So, in the UK, PRS represents performing rights and MCPS represents mechanical rights.
Performing rights are exploited when songs are broadcast, performed or made available, which includes radio, live shows and when recorded music is played in public. Mechanical rights are exploited when songs are reproduced and distributed, which includes when CDs and vinyl records are pressed and sold.
On-demand streaming exploits both the performing rights and the mechanical rights at the same time, because the songs are both made available and reproduced. That means if an independent songwriter is only in a performing rights society, they are missing out on some of the digital royalties due on their songs.
In the US, there are five societies representing performing rights: BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, GMR and AllTrack. Until now none of those collected mechanical royalties. A separate society, The MLC, manages mechanical royalties, but it’s quite new and only collects money from audio digital services, so not platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
If a writer is published, they would rely on their publisher to make sure all the royalties they are due are collected. However, since launching in 2017, AllTrack has focused on independent artists and writers.
And they, it notes, have previously “needed to register their songs with multiple platforms and societies to collect their global mechanical royalties”, and “in some cases, if they wished to pursue a truly independent path, certain forms of mechanicals were inaccessible altogether”.
If a writer signs up for AllTrack’s full mechanical rights service, it will collect their royalties for US audio streams via the MLC and directly deal with platforms where the MLC is not involved. It is also working with collecting societies around the world to collect mechanical royalties due in other markets.