House leaders strive to bring clarity, fairness to music licensing with new legislation

U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Tom Rooney (R-FL) recently reintroduced legislation that would modernize rules governing music licensing for digital and terrestrial radio broadcasts.

The Fair Play Fair Pay Act would establish a terrestrial performance right to put AM/FM radio on equal footing with internet and satellite competitors offering digital streaming and already paying performance royalties. In addition, it would eliminate different royalty standards that create an unfair playing field.

Blackburn, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, Issa, the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, and Rooney, introduced the bill with U.S. Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Judiciary Committee member Ted Deutch (D-FL).

“Our current music licensing laws are antiquated and unfair, which is why we need a system that ensures all radio services play by the same rules and all artists are fairly compensated,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. “Our laws should reward innovation, spur economic diversity and uphold the constitutional rights of creators. That is what the Fair Play Fair Pay Act sets out to accomplish: fixing a system that for too long has disadvantaged music creators and pitted technologies against each other by allowing certain services to get away with paying little or nothing to artists.”

To ensure terrestrial royalties remain affordable, the bill would cap royalties for stations with less than $1 million in annual revenue at $500 per year, and at $100 per year for non-commercial stations.

The measure would also clarify that pre-1972 recordings have value and those who profit from them must pay royalties for their use. It would also protect songwriters and publishers by stating nothing in the bill could be used to lower songwriting royalties, codify industry practices on royalty payments, and ensure artists receive an equitable share from direct licensing of eligible performances.