---
title: Does ASCAP collect US mechanical royalties?
publisher: RapCanon
canonical: https://rapcanon.com/tools/royalty-coverage/ascap-mech_us/
license: CC-BY-4.0
retrieved: 2026-08-13
---

> No. Stated by ASCAP itself: mechanical royalties from streams, downloads and physical sales are NOT collected by performing rights organisations. ASCAP runs a page whose whole purpose is telling members to join The MLC separately.

Royalty coverage

 
# Does ASCAP collect US mechanical royalties?

 
 
Does not

 
Stated by ASCAP itself: mechanical royalties from streams, downloads and physical sales are NOT collected by performing rights organisations. ASCAP runs a page whose whole purpose is telling members to join The MLC separately.

 
 
What this stream is. The songwriting side of a US stream, paid under the statutory blanket licence administered by The MLC. Separate from the recording payment above, and paid to whoever registered the WORK.

 Worth knowing about ASCAP - ★ Joining a PRO does NOT get you your mechanicals. This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding in independent music.
- Joining as WRITER ONLY leaves the 50% publisher share of every performance uncollected. ASCAP waives its $50 publisher fee if you join as writer and publisher at the same time, so the cost of doing it right is zero if done at signup.
- "ASCAP handles my sync" is false. It collects only the downstream performance.
 
 
Read from ASCAP's own documentation on 2026-08-13. Check it yourself — and if it has changed, tell us.

 
See the full matrix for all 16 organisations →

---

## How to cite this page

**APA**
RapCanon. (2026). Does ASCAP collect US mechanical royalties?. Retrieved from https://rapcanon.com/tools/royalty-coverage/ascap-mech_us/

**BibTeX**
```bibtex
@misc{rapcanon-tools-royalty-coverage-ascap-mech-us,
  title  = {Does ASCAP collect US mechanical royalties?},
  author = {{RapCanon}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://rapcanon.com/tools/royalty-coverage/ascap-mech_us/},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-08-13}
}
```

**Wikipedia**
```
{{cite web |title=Does ASCAP collect US mechanical royalties? |url=https://rapcanon.com/tools/royalty-coverage/ascap-mech_us/ |publisher=RapCanon |access-date=2026-08-13}}
```

Licensed CC-BY 4.0. Reuse it, including commercially, with attribution and a link back.
Canonical HTML: https://rapcanon.com/tools/royalty-coverage/ascap-mech_us/