The way music is licensed and songwriters are compensated for the digital age will be undergoing big changes under a bill making its way through Congress.
The Senate cleared a bill late Tuesday that creates a new independent entity that will license songs to companies that play music online. The nonprofit collective will then pay songwriters, including those who wrote pre-1970s classics before music copyrights protected their work.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander championed the bill and sought to rename it the Orrin B. Hatch Music Modernization Act after the retiring Utah senator, who also backed it.
The measure enjoys unusually strong bipartisan support from the music industry. It now goes to the House with changes from an earlier version that already passed that chamber on a nearly unanimous vote.
“The passage of the Music Modernization Act by the Senate is a historic moment for the tens of thousands of music creators across the nation,” said Neil Portnow, president/CEO of the Recording Academy. “Since first proposing the music industry unite around a common bill in 2014, our members have lobbied in Washington and all 50 states to achieve this vision. When creators raise their voices for fairness, they make great progress.”
