The American Music Fairness Act, a joint effort by the AFM and the MusicFIRST Coalition, aims to bring attention to a decades long injustice that denies payment to music creators when their music is played on traditional radio.
The AFM worked closely with MusicFIRST and members of Congress to help craft this bill. Throughout this month, we’re encouraging artists and music creators to use their platforms to elevate this issue and to advocate for musicians so that they may be fairly compensated for their work.
KEY POINTS — The American Music Fairness Act will:
- Ensure performers are compensated when their songs are played on terrestrial radio.
- Treat competing music platforms the same and create a fair market value for music performance royalties by including terrestrial broadcasts in the existing Section 114(d)(1) of title 17 of United States Code.
- Protect small, local radio broadcasters through an exemption for stations with less than $1.5 million in annual revenue and whose parent companies make less than $10 million in overall annual revenue. For less than $2 per day ($500 annually), small and local stations can play unlimited music.
- Exempt qualified public, college, and other noncommercial stations (who would only pay $100 a year), and super small stations.
- Support American artists when foreign stations play their music, recognizing American artists’ performance right.
- Protect songwriters and publishers, ensuring no harmful impact on the public performance rights and royalties payable to songwriters, musical work copyright owners, and publishers.
- Americans believe everyone should be paid fairly for their work — and music is no exception!
Now is the time for Congress to fix this outrage and pass the American Music Fairness Act — legislation that ensures fairness for working artists by paying them when their music is played on AM/FM radio.
