Does ASCAP Collect Mechanical Royalties?

They’re handled by publishers, not PROs.

Mechanical royalties earned from streams, downloads, and physical sales are not collected by Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) like ASCAP. Global mechanical royalties are handled by publishers. As your publishing administrator, Songtrust will register your songs with mechanical rights societies and digital sources to collect these royalties and pay them out to you.

Mechanical royalties can also be collected in the U.S. through The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), a newly launched non-profit centered on stateside interactive streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music.

The graph below helps to demonstrate how mechanical royalties are collected.

For more on how mechanical royalties differ from performance royalties, check out our mini-crash course, our blog post breakdown or complete list of mechanical royalty sources.

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