Promising Outlook for Hatch’s Music Modernization Package in Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee appears poised to advance a package of music copyright legislation recently passed with unprecedented consensus in the House (see 1805100072, 1804250078 and 1804200052), Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and industry stakeholders told us. Six months ago, sponsors Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., came to Grassley with a stand-alone bill that drew deep skepticism. Despite the addition of two more controversial bills, Grassley said the majority of players remain in support. “I think it’s going to go fairly smooth, and I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of opposition. You’re going to find a lot of people praising" the package, he said.
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Hatch folded all three bills into the Music Modernization Act (S-2823) Thursday. The new bill incorporates language from the Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service and Important Contributions to Society (Classics) Act (S-2393) and the Allocation for Music Producers (Amp) Act (S-2625), which were included in the House version. Recording Academy Chief Industry, Government and Member Relations Officer Daryl Friedman has “high confidence” the combined package will pass the Senate, but some issues remain: “Some digital music services want to maintain their outdated exemptions that allow them to treat artists, especially older artists, unfairly. But Congress understands the marketplace needs to be updated and everyone should play by the same rules.”
Friedman was referring to the bill's Classics Act portion, which SiriusXM opposes because it would make the service pay for use of all pre-1972 sound recordings. Billboard CEO Jim Meyer called it a “massive subsidy ... to terrestrial radio.” Computer & Communications Industry Association Vice President-Law and Policy Matt Schruers said the outlook for the package is strong: “Many groups often at odds have rallied around the bill because it fixes obstacles preventing digital music from being played and artists being paid.” He agreed Hatch’s stand-alone Music Modernization Act is a consensus bill. Digital Media Association General Counsel Greg Barnes said: “To borrow a line from Smokey Robinson’s hit 1979 song, we hope to find the MMA ‘cruisin’ its way towards enactment later this summer.” Robinson is to testify Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the legislation, along with National Music Publishers' Association CEO David Israelite, Digital Media Association CEO Chris Harrison and others. Jay Rosenthal, a Mitchell Silberberg lawyer who represents music industry content owners and former general counsel at the National Music Publishers’ Association, said no amendments are expected. He said Senate hearings might raise issues about the Classics Act, but that shouldn’t alter a positive outcome.
Israelite, Harrison, the Nashville Songwriters Association, ASCAP, the Internet Association, BMI, RIAA and SoundExchange have voiced support for the package. The Copyright Alliance also applauded the package’s introduction. CEO Keith Kupferschmid said the package “will result in the most significant improvement of music copyright law in more than a generation.” Hatch said the “disorganized way of collecting and distributing music royalties” has resulted in unfair compensation for too long. Alexander urged the Senate to do its job “so this bill can become law this year and songwriters can finally receive the money they are owed.”