Tax return shows six-figure MLC salaries as songwriters wait for $565M in unpaid royalties

Our friends at The Trichordist found the 2021 tax return for The Mechanical Licensing Collective, including what it pays its executives.

Led by $665,307 for CEO Kristopher Ahrend, the staff salary reveal comes at a time when the non-profit corporation approved by the federal Copyright Royalty Board is holding on to more than $565 million in unpaid “black box” royalties.

“We’re not going to point out the disparities in this little list but..,” wrote the Trichordist. “We can’t help but wonder how many songwriters make anything like these salaries?”

See the full return here.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.