The only digital mechanical royalties that The MLC collects from YouTube are for official YouTube Art Tracks. An Art Track is a version of a track on a music album that is automatically generated by YouTube. An Art Track consists of the sound recording, album art, and metadata of the recording, such as the title and artist name.
Please note that content uploaded to YouTube by users is considered user-generated content (UGC) and is not covered under The MLC blanket license.
If you’re unsure whether a recording on YouTube is an official Art Track, take a look at the description. If it is an official Art Track the information in the description will be simple and to the point, typically containing the track title, artist name, copyright, release date, and a tag stating “Auto-generated by YouTube.”