It’s a year and a half since the Mechanical Licensing Collecting (MLC) began its operations in the US, identifying unmatched royalties from streaming services and paying them out to publishers and independent songwriters. Last week, the body provided an update on how that’s going.

“The MLC has collected almost $1 billion in mechanical royalties,” explained its announcement. “As a result of The MLC’s efforts, rightsholders have received more than $800 million in royalties — nearly $700 million in blanket royalties distributed directly by The MLC and nearly $120 million in royalties (when valued at the statutory rates used by The MLC) processed by The MLC but paid by DSPs pursuant to voluntary licenses.”

The organisation also said that it now has more than 22,000 members, with more than 6,000 having signed up in 2022 so far, and that it has processed more than 98% of the 17m works registrations for its database.