Sponsors (14)
Introduced January 31, 2025 by Darrell Issa · Last progress January 31, 2025
The bill increases clarity and short-term payment certainty and gives targeted relief to very small stations, but shifts costs and royalties in ways that could raise operating costs for many broadcasters and services, reduce payments or bargaining leverage for some creators, and add administrative and litigation burdens.
Broadcasters and streaming services: get a single, clearer licensing standard for analog and digital sound-recording transmissions plus a predictable five-year rate proceeding schedule, reducing legal uncertainty and long-term planning risk.
Very small and local broadcasters (and public/community stations): pay sharply capped, low annual royalties ($10 / $100 / $500 depending on revenue), giving them affordable, predictable licensing costs and helping keep local service viable.
Copyright owners and performers: receive legally set rates for nonsubscription broadcast transmissions through 12/31/2028, providing payment certainty and reduced rate-setting uncertainty for that period.
Broadcasters, internet radio services, and transmitting entities (and ultimately consumers): may face higher licensing costs because analog and digital transmissions are treated under the same standard, judges can set higher rates through 2028, and services must surrender half of some direct-license royalties to collectives — likely increasing operating costs and possibly consumer prices.
Songwriters and record owners: could receive lower total royalty income because low, fixed statutory rates for many small stations reduce the pool of payments available to creators.
Rights holders and payors: face cash-flow and budgeting complications because certain payments can be delayed under the Act, shifting near-term obligations and creating administrative complexity.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Treats all analog and digital broadcasts as "audio transmissions," mandates prompt royalty proceedings, and creates a small-station fixed-fee royalty option plus rules for sharing direct-license payments.
Expands the federal public-performance right for sound recordings so that terrestrial (analog) broadcasts are treated the same as internet/digital transmissions by defining and covering all “audio transmissions.” It directs the Copyright Royalty Judges to begin rate-setting proceedings immediately, makes those rates effective from enactment through December 31, 2028 and every five years thereafter, and creates a new small-station fixed-fee option for qualifying nonsubscription terrestrial broadcast stations ($10, $100, or $500 per year depending on revenue and public/nonpublic status). The bill also requires certain direct-license payments to be shared with the statutory collective, preserves existing songwriter/ musical-work payments, and instructs Judges to weigh economic, competitive, and programming evidence when setting rates. Key changes include a statutory definition of “audio transmission” (digital, analog, or other formats), replacement of “digital” qualifiers throughout copyright provisions with broader “audio” language, a certification process and revenue thresholds for small-station fees, a rule that 50% of direct-license royalties for transmissions covered by the statutory license be paid to the collective for distribution, and protections ensuring the small-station fee amounts cannot be used as evidence in other royalty proceedings.