The US Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has appointed its first CEO. Kris Ahrend is a former executive at Warner Music, Rhino Entertainment and Sony BMG, who got the job after a months-long selection process. He’ll head up the recently-created body, which is administering the new blanket compulsory license for the use of musical works by digital music services, processing and paying out streaming mechanical royalties in the US from January 2021.
“We will provide songwriters and publishers unprecedented transparency, rights, and the ability to claim what is theirs,” promised Ahrend in a statement.
MLC board chair Alisa Coleman (who’ll be speaking at the NY:LON Connect conference this afternoon) hailed his appointment. “The unique combination of his experience with license administration, his tenure as a business and legal affairs executive in the music industry, and his most recent involvement in leading the design and operation of a large client service organisation makes him well-suited to operate the MLC.”
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