Sponsors (6)
Introduced January 30, 2025 by Marsha Blackburn · Last progress January 30, 2025
The bill clarifies and preserves creators' performance rights and guarantees certain artist allocations while lowering short‑term costs and providing predictability for small broadcasters, but it shifts costs onto many broadcasters and services, creates administrative and enforcement burdens, and introduces timing uncertainty for royalty payments.
Songwriters and recording artists retain and in some cases gain clearer, broader royalty rights because 'audio transmission' is defined to include analog and digital broadcasts, preserving public-performance income streams.
Featured and nonfeatured performing artists receive a guaranteed share of statutory-license receipts — 50% of direct-license royalties routed to the designated collective — ensuring more consistent payments to performers.
Small and low‑revenue broadcast stations (including many nonprofits) get immediate financial relief through fixed, low annual royalties ($10–$500) and special $100/year treatment for public broadcasters under $1.5M, plus delayed payment timing for some obligations.
Local radio stations and terrestrial broadcasters (especially small operators) face new licensing obligations and higher costs if analog transmissions are treated like digital performances; transmitting entities generally face higher licensing costs that may be passed to consumers.
Songwriters and recording artists may experience delayed royalty payments and revenue uncertainty while judges set rates and payment dates, and repeated five‑year rate proceedings create ongoing legal and administrative uncertainty.
Small and noncommercial stations (nonprofits) face increased administrative and compliance burdens from certification, GAAP revenue reporting, affiliate-aggregation rules, and related paperwork.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Expands federal public-performance law for sound recordings so it covers all "audio transmissions," including terrestrial (analog) radio, not just digital streams. It directs judges who set music royalty rates to open a proceeding on these nonsubscription broadcast transmissions, requires that proceeding to be repeated every five years, creates very low flat annual fees for qualifying small broadcast stations, sets rules for eligibility and certification, and requires certain payments from direct licenses to be shared with the collective that distributes statutory-license receipts. It also preserves existing songwriter and musical-work performance rights and tells the judges to consider whether radio use substitutes for or promotes record sales or affects other revenue streams.