What is a mechanical royalty?

A royalty paid to the songwriter and publisher for reproducing a composition – on physical product, downloads, and the copy made inside every interactive stream. It's separate from a performance royalty, which is paid for playing the song in public.

What is the current mechanical royalty rate?

For physical product and permanent downloads in the US, the statutory rate is 13.1 cents per song under 5 minutes in 2026 (2.52 cents per minute over that), set by the Copyright Royalty Board and adjusted yearly for inflation. Streaming is different – there's no penny rate; the songwriter pool is a percentage of the service's revenue.

How do I collect mechanical royalties from streaming?

Through The MLC (the Mechanical Licensing Collective) in the US, or a publishing admin that registers with it. Register your works and ownership splits – it's free with The MLC – or the streaming mechanicals go uncollected.

Mechanical royalties explained

A mechanical royalty is paid to the songwriter and publisher for reproducing a composition – on physical copies, downloads, and the copy made inside every stream. In the US it's a fixed statutory rate for physical and downloads, and a share of revenue for streaming. It only reaches the songwriter if the song is registered.

What it's actually paying for

A mechanical royalty pays the composition side – the songwriter and publisher – for a copy being made. That includes the obvious copies (a CD, a vinyl record, a download) and a less obvious one: every interactive stream makes a copy of the song in the process of delivering it, so streams owe mechanicals too. Keep this separate in your head from a performance royalty, which pays for the song being played in public. Managers mix these up constantly – a single stream actually pays both.

The statutory rate, for physical and downloads

In the US, mechanicals on physical product and permanent downloads are set by law – a “statutory rate” the Copyright Royalty Board reviews. For 2026 it’s 13.1 cents per song under 5 minutes (or 2.52 cents per minute for longer songs), and it now rises a little each year with inflation. That movement is new: the rate sat frozen at 9.1 cents from 2006 all the way through 2022 before it started climbing. So an album of 10 songs owes roughly $1.31 in mechanicals per copy sold, split among the writers.

Streaming mechanicals work differently

There’s no penny-per-stream mechanical rate. Instead, the songwriter and publisher pool is set as a percentage of the streaming service’s revenue, divided up by how much each song was streamed. That headline percentage has been climbing under the current rate settlement – toward roughly 15% of US streaming revenue going to the songwriting side – but the practical takeaway is simpler: streaming mechanicals are a share of a pool, not a fixed amount, and they’re a real income stream that’s easy to leave uncollected.

The MLC is how you collect the streaming half

Since 2021, US streaming mechanicals run through The MLC – the Mechanical Licensing Collective, created by the 2018 Music Modernization Act. Streaming services pay The MLC, which matches the money to registered songs and pays the writers. The catch: it only works if the song and its ownership splits are registered. Registering with The MLC is free, or a publishing admin can do it (and collect performance royalties too). Skip it and the mechanicals pile up unclaimed.

Watch for controlled composition clauses

If your artist writes their own songs and signs to a label, read the recording contract for a controlled composition clause. It lets the label pay reduced mechanicals on the artist’s own songs – commonly 75% of the statutory rate, capped at around 10 songs per album no matter how many tracks there are. On a long album, that can quietly cut the songwriting income. It’s negotiable, and worth pushing on.

Common questions

What is a mechanical royalty?: A royalty paid to the songwriter and publisher for reproducing a composition – on physical product, downloads, and the copy made inside every interactive stream. It's separate from a performance royalty, which is paid for playing the song in public.
What is the current mechanical royalty rate?: For physical product and permanent downloads in the US, the statutory rate is 13.1 cents per song under 5 minutes in 2026 (2.52 cents per minute over that), set by the Copyright Royalty Board and adjusted yearly for inflation. Streaming is different – there's no penny rate; the songwriter pool is a percentage of the service's revenue.
How do I collect mechanical royalties from streaming?: Through The MLC (the Mechanical Licensing Collective) in the US, or a publishing admin that registers with it. Register your works and ownership splits – it's free with The MLC – or the streaming mechanicals go uncollected.