Lesson 2: Registering with a PRO + The MLC

How to Set Up ASCAP/BMI and The MLC to Ensure You Never Miss a Royalty Check.

When I started releasing music, I thought copyright was enough to protect me and ensure I got paid. But here’s the truth: copyright only protects your ownership. The PROs, ASCAP/BMI, and the MLC make sure you get paid. If you skip this step, you’re leaving money on the table every single time your music is streamed, performed, or played publicly.

Some artists get confused by this, because royalties aren’t a single paycheck—they’re multiple streams of income that flow from different rights.

Here, I break down the differences between performance royalties (ASCAP/BMI) and mechanical royalties (The MLC), and explain why you need both to work together to get paid.

Performance Royalties (ASCAP/BMI)

Whenever your song is performed publicly, whether that’s on the radio, at a bar, on TV, or on streaming platforms, you’re owed performance royalties.

• Songwriter Share: Paid directly to you as the writer.
• Publisher Share: Paid to whoever owns the publishing rights (which can also be you if you claim it).

Example: Your track plays in a café in San Francisco. ASCAP logs the performance, and you get paid.

Mechanical Royalties (The MLC)

These come from the reproduction of your song, which in today’s world means streams and downloads.“Every stream of your song on Spotify or Apple Music earns you a mechanical royalty.

• Collected in the U.S. by The MLC.
• Outside the U.S., collected by international mechanical rights societies (like MCPS in the UK, CMRRA in Canada, etc.).

Why Both Matter

Streaming platforms pay both performance and mechanical royalties—but to different entities. That’s why being registered with ASCAP/BMI and The MLC is non-negotiable. If you only do one, you’re missing half your paycheck.

I encourage you to sign up for both, and most importantly, use the MLC instead of opting for a music distributor’s publishing admin service for U.S. mechanical royalties. Music distributors often encourage—or even nudge—independent artists into assigning publishing rights through their platforms because it creates additional revenue streams for the distributor, not necessarily because it benefits the artist. I had to learn the hard way.

Why Both Matter

• Without ISRCs and UPCs, royalties can’t be tracked or paid correctly.
• They help with chart eligibility (Billboard, Official Charts, etc.).
• They prevent misidentification when multiple songs share the same title.

Step 1: Picking Your PRO (ASCAP or BMI)

In the U.S., you need to be a member of a Performing Rights Organization (PRO). The PROs collect performance royalties for when your music is played:

• On the radio or TV
• In live venues or barsOn streaming platforms (the performance royalty portion)

The two main PROs are ASCAP and BMI. (SESAC is invite-only, so we’ll keep it simple for now.)

How to Choose:

• Both do the same job, but they have slightly different fees and member perks.
• ASCAP: New ASCAP writer memberships are free. If you register as both a writer and publisher, all fees are waived, but publisher-only memberships cost a one-time, non-refundable $50.
• BMI: Joining BMI as a writer is free, but registering as a publisher requires a one-time affiliation fee. The cost depends on your company’s legal structure: $175 for an individual publisher or $250 if you register as a corporation or LLC.

Pro Tip: For full control, register as both a writer and a publisher. That way, you collect 100% of your royalties (writers get 50%, publishers get 50%). If you don’t set up publishing, your share may go uncollected.

I joined ASCAP in December 2020 as both a writer and a publisher for $50 each, while BMI charged $150 for publishers and was free for writers.

Step 2: Set Up Your Account

• Go to ASCAP.com or BMI.com.
• Sign up as a writer member.
• If you’re serious about long-term independence like me, also sign up as a publisher member.
• Fill in your personal details, music genre, and payment/banking info.

Once you’re in, you’ll use their portal to register each of your works. That’s how your songs receive their ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code), a unique, internationally recognized identifier that prevents confusion between works with the same or similar titles.

Step 3: Register Your Works

Every song needs to be registered in your PRO account. You’ll enter:

• Title of the song
• Writers (and % splits)
• Publisher (you, if you registered your own)
• Recording info

This is how your songs get officially recognized in the royalty system.

Step 4: Sign Up with The MLC

Next is The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC).

• They collect mechanical royalties in the U.S., which are the streaming reproduction royalties (e.g., Spotify, Apple Music, etc.).
• It’s free to sign up.
• Every songwriter should join, even if you already have a PRO.

Setup:

• Go to TheMLC.com.
• Create a free account as a songwriter.
• Register your works (they’ll match against what’s in your PRO and distributor).
• Enter your banking details so that payouts are sent directly to you.

Without the MLC, your U.S. streaming mechanical royalties remain unclaimed—or worse, they are redirected to the “black box” fund, which is then redistributed to the largest publishers.

Step 5: Connect Your Bank & Get Paid

Both your PRO and The MLC allow direct deposit. Don’t skip this step. Otherwise, you’ll wait months for paper checks (and some funds may get lost in the shuffle).

There’s a great article on Spotify’s Blog titled, “Collecting Mechanical Royalties Can Be Tricky. The MLC Is Here to Fix That.” Spotify speaks with The MLC’s Dae Bogan, Head of Third-Party Partnerships, where he explains how mechanical royalties work and what songwriters need to do to ensure they’re collecting these royalties.

#TheChroniclesOfZOOLOOK #OwnYourWork #TheMLC #Ascap #BMI

More from ZOOLOOK

In an upcoming lesson, I’ll walk you through how to register directly with foreign collection societies like MCPS, CMRRA, and AMCOS, so you can authorize them to collect your international mechanical royalties without relying on a publishing administrator as the middleman. Until then…

You can do this!

Next Week: Lesson 3: ISRC & UPC — The Digital DNA of Your Music

Register with SoundExchange to collect digital performance royalties from SiriusXM, Pandora, and other Internet Radio services.