The Mechanical Licensing Collective releases the second version of its Educator Toolkit

By Emmanuel Legrand

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC), the US collective management organisation tasked with licensing and administering mechanical rights for the online use of compositions, has released the second version of its Educator Toolkit.

  The toolkit – ceated by Serona Elton, The MLC’s Head of Educational Partnerships and a long-time university professor – is a free resource designed "to help college educators teach their students – particularly those studying music and music business – about the landscape of digital audio mechanical rights in the US and The MLC’s role in it following passage of the Music Modernisation Act of 2018," according to The MLC.  

   “As an educator myself, I understand the importance of having up-to-date teaching materials, particularly with a subject matter that is as inherently complex and rapidly evolving as mechanical licensing,” noted Elton (pictured, below). 

Comprehensive resources for educators

  She added: “The updates we’ve made to the Toolkit – based in part on feedback we received from the educators who are already using it – reflect The MLC’s commitment to continuing to provide instructors with the comprehensive and current resources they need to navigate this complex subject matter and best prepare tomorrow’s music industry professionals.”

  The current toolkit is updated from the original version – released in November 2020 – based on feedback from educators across the country.  The new version of the Toolkit contains an easy-to-understand introductory video, a white-label customisable PowerPoint presentation, suggested classroom activities and exam questions and a list of informational videos and articles on copyright law and the history of mechanical licensing that educators can reference. 

Accessible learning exercises

  “The MLC’s Educator Toolkit provides an excellent starting point for teaching about the new world of music licensing brought about by the enactment of the Music Modernisation Act and creation of The MLC, and its accessible learning exercises help make sense of those new developments in a straightforward way,” explained Sean M. O’Connor of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. “I was able to easily customize and augment the Toolkit, which saved me time, and the results were appreciated by a class of law students with music backgrounds.”

  The MLC said that the Educator Toolkit "reflects The MLC's commitment to fulfilling a broader mandate to educate rights holders about changes that came about with the passage of the Music Modernisation Act and The MLC's role in those changes."