II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 326
To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide fair treatment of radio
stations and artists for the use of sound recordings, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY30, 2025
Mrs. B
LACKBURN(for herself, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. TILLIS, and Mr. BOOKER)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide fair treat-
ment of radio stations and artists for the use of sound
recordings, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘American Music Fairness Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Equitable treatment for terrestrial broadcasts and internet services.
Sec. 3. Timing of proceedings under sections 112(e) and 114(f).
Sec. 4. Special protection for small broadcasters.
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Sec. 5. Distribution of certain royalties.
Sec. 6. No harmful effects on songwriters.
Sec. 7. Value of promotion taken into account.
SEC. 2. EQUITABLE TREATMENT FOR TERRESTRIAL
1
BROADCASTS AND INTERNET SERVICES. 2
(a) P
ERFORMANCE RIGHTAPPLICABLE TOAUDIO 3
T
RANSMISSIONSGENERALLY.—Paragraph (6) of section 4
106 of title 17, United States Code, is amended to read 5
as follows: 6
‘‘(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform 7
the copyrighted work publicly by means of an audio 8
transmission.’’. 9
(b) I
NCLUSION OF TERRESTRIALBROADCASTS IN 10
E
XISTINGPERFORMANCE RIGHT ANDSTATUTORYLI-11
CENSE.—Section 114(d)(1) of title 17, United States 12
Code, is amended— 13
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 14
by striking ‘‘a digital’’ and inserting ‘‘an’’; 15
(2) by striking subparagraph (A); 16
(3) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) and 17
(C) as subparagraphs (A) and (B), respectively; and 18
(4) in subparagraph (A), as redesignated by 19
paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘nonsubscription’’ and in-20
serting ‘‘licensed nonsubscription’’. 21
(c) T
ECHNICAL ANDCONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 22
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(1) DEFINITION.—Section 101 of title 17, 1
United States Code, is amended by inserting after 2
the definition of ‘‘architectural work’’ the following: 3
‘‘An ‘audio transmission’ is a transmission of a sound 4
recording, whether in a digital, analog, or other format. 5
This term does not include the transmission of any audio-6
visual work.’’. 7
(2) C
ONFORMING REMOVAL OF ‘‘DIGITAL’’.— 8
Title 17, United States Code, is amended— 9
(A) in section 112(e)(8), by striking ‘‘a 10
digital audio transmission’’ and inserting ‘‘an 11
audio transmission’’; 12
(B) in section 114— 13
(i) in subsection (d)— 14
(I) in paragraph (2)— 15
(aa) in the matter preceding 16
subparagraph (A), by striking 17
‘‘subscription digital’’ and insert-18
ing ‘‘subscription’’; and 19
(bb) in subparagraph 20
(C)(viii), by striking ‘‘digital sig-21
nal’’ and inserting ‘‘signal’’; and 22
(II) in paragraph (4)— 23
(aa) in subparagraph (A), 24
by striking ‘‘a digital audio 25
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transmission’’ and inserting ‘‘an 1
audio transmission’’; and 2
(bb) in subparagraph (B)(i), 3
by striking ‘‘a digital audio 4
transmission’’ and inserting ‘‘an 5
audio transmission’’; 6
(ii) in subsection (g)(2)(A), by strik-7
ing ‘‘a digital’’ and inserting ‘‘an’’; and 8
(iii) in subsection (j)— 9
(I) in paragraph (6)— 10
(aa) by striking ‘‘digital’’; 11
and 12
(bb) by striking ‘‘retrans-13
missions of broadcast trans-14
missions’’ and inserting ‘‘broad-15
cast transmissions and retrans-16
missions of broadcast trans-17
missions’’; and 18
(II) in paragraph (8), by striking 19
‘‘subscription digital’’ and inserting 20
‘‘subscription’’; and 21
(C) in section 1401— 22
(i) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘a 23
digital audio’’ and inserting ‘‘an audio’’; 24
and 25
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(ii) in subsection (d)— 1
(I) in paragraph (1), by striking 2
‘‘a digital audio’’ and inserting ‘‘an 3
audio’’; 4
(II) in paragraph (2)(A), by 5
striking ‘‘a digital audio’’ and insert-6
ing ‘‘an audio’’; and 7
(III) in paragraph (4)(A), by 8
striking ‘‘a digital audio’’ and insert-9
ing ‘‘an audio’’. 10
SEC. 3. TIMING OF PROCEEDINGS UNDER SECTIONS 112(e) 11
AND 114(f). 12
Paragraph (3) of section 804(b) of title 17, United 13
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-14
lowing new subparagraph: 15
‘‘(D) A proceeding under this chapter shall 16
be commenced as soon as practicable after the 17
date of the enactment of this subparagraph to 18
determine royalty rates and terms for non-19
subscription broadcast transmissions, to be ef-20
fective for the period beginning on such date of 21
enactment, and ending on December 31, 2028. 22
Any payment due under section 114(f)(1)(D) 23
shall not be due until the due date of the first 24
royalty payments for nonsubscription broadcast 25
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transmissions that are determined, after the 1
date of the enactment of this subparagraph, by 2
the Copyright Royalty Judges. Thereafter, such 3
proceeding shall be repeated in each subsequent 4
fifth calendar year.’’. 5
SEC. 4. SPECIAL PROTECTION FOR SMALL BROADCASTERS. 6
(a) S
PECIFIEDROYALTYFEES.—Section 114(f)(1) 7
of title 17, United States Code, is amended by inserting 8
at the end the following new subparagraph: 9
‘‘(D)(i) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-10
paragraphs (A) through (C), the royalty rate shall 11
be as follows for nonsubscription broadcast trans-12
missions by each individual terrestrial broadcast sta-13
tion licensed as such by the Federal Communica-14
tions Commission that satisfies the conditions in 15
clause (ii)— 16
‘‘(I) $10 per calendar year, in the case of 17
nonsubscription broadcast transmissions by a 18
broadcast station that generated revenue in the 19
immediately preceding calendar year of less 20
than $100,000; 21
‘‘(II) $100 per calendar year, in the case 22
of nonsubscription broadcast transmissions by a 23
broadcast station that is a public broadcasting 24
entity as defined in section 118(f) and gen-25
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erated revenue in the immediately preceding 1
calendar year of $100,000 or more, but less 2
than $1,500,000; and 3
‘‘(III) $500 per calendar year, in the case 4
of nonsubscription broadcast transmissions by a 5
broadcast station that is not a public broad-6
casting entity as defined in section 118(f) and 7
generated revenue in the immediately preceding 8
calendar year of $100,000 or more, but less 9
than $1,500,000. 10
‘‘(ii) An individual terrestrial broadcast station 11
licensed as such by the Federal Communications 12
Commission is eligible for a royalty rate set forth in 13
clause (i) if— 14
‘‘(I) the revenue from the operation of that 15
individual station was less than $1,500,000 16
during the immediately preceding calendar year; 17
‘‘(II) the aggregate revenue of the owner 18
and operator of the broadcast station and any 19
person directly or indirectly controlling, con-20
trolled by, or under common control with such 21
owner or operator, from any source, was less 22
than $10,000,000 during the immediately pre-23
ceding calendar year; and 24
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‘‘(III) the owner or operator of the broad-1
cast station provides to the nonprofit collective 2
designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges to 3
distribute receipts from the licensing of trans-4
missions in accordance with subsection (f), by 5
no later than January 31 of the relevant cal-6
endar year, a written and signed certification of 7
the station’s eligibility under this clause and the 8
applicable subclause of clause (i), in accordance 9
with requirements the Copyright Royalty 10
Judges shall prescribe by regulation. 11
‘‘(iii) For purposes of clauses (i) and (ii)— 12
‘‘(I) revenue shall be calculated in accord-13
ance with generally accepted accounting prin-14
ciples; 15
‘‘(II) revenue generated by a terrestrial 16
broadcast station shall include all revenue from 17
the operation of the station, from any source; 18
and 19
‘‘(III) in the case of affiliated broadcast 20
stations, revenue shall be allocated reasonably 21
to individual stations associated with the rev-22
enue. 23
‘‘(iv) The royalty rates specified in clause (i) 24
shall not be admissible as evidence or otherwise 25
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taken into account in determining royalty rates in a 1
proceeding under chapter 8, or in any other adminis-2
trative, judicial, or other Federal Government pro-3
ceeding involving the setting or adjustment of the 4
royalties payable for the public performance or re-5
production in ephemeral phonorecords or copies of 6
sound recordings, the determination of terms or con-7
ditions related thereto, or the establishment of notice 8
or recordkeeping requirements.’’. 9
(b) T
ECHNICALCORRECTION.—Section 118 of title 10
17, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘section 11
397 of title 47’’ and inserting ‘‘section 397 of the Commu-12
nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 397)’’ in each place it 13
appears. 14
SEC. 5. DISTRIBUTION OF CERTAIN ROYALTIES. 15
Section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, is 16
amended— 17
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or in the 18
case of a transmission to which paragraph (5) ap-19
plies’’ after ‘‘this section’’; 20
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (5), (6), and 21
(7) as paragraphs (6), (7), and (8), respectively; and 22
(3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol-23
lowing new paragraph: 24
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‘‘(5) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), to the ex-1
tent that a license granted by the copyright owner 2
of a sound recording to a transmitting entity eligible 3
for a statutory license under subsection (d)(2) ex-4
tends to such entity’s transmissions otherwise licens-5
able under a statutory license in accordance with 6
subsection (f), such entity shall pay to the collective 7
designated to distribute statutory licensing receipts 8
from the licensing of transmissions in accordance 9
with subsection (f), 50 percent of the total royalties 10
that such entity is required, pursuant to the applica-11
ble license agreement, to pay for such transmissions 12
otherwise licensable under a statutory license in ac-13
cordance with subsection (f). That collective shall 14
distribute such payments in proportion to the dis-15
tributions provided in subparagraphs (B) through 16
(D) of paragraph (2), and such payments shall be 17
the only payments to which featured and nonfea-18
tured artists are entitled by virtue of such trans-19
missions under the direct license with such entity.’’. 20
SEC. 6. NO HARMFUL EFFECTS ON SONGWRITERS. 21
Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this 22
Act, shall adversely affect in any respect the public per-23
formance rights of or royalties payable to songwriters or 24
copyright owners of musical works. 25
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SEC. 7. VALUE OF PROMOTION TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. 1
Pursuant to section 114(f)(1)(B) of title 17, United 2
States Code, in determining rates and terms for terrestrial 3
broadcast radio stations under this Act, and the amend-4
ments made by this Act, the Copyright Royalty Judges 5
shall base their decision on economic, competitive, and 6
programming information presented by the parties, includ-7
ing whether use of the station’s service may substitute for 8
or may promote the sales of phonorecords or otherwise 9
may interfere with or may enhance the sound recording 10
copyright owner’s other streams of revenue from the copy-11
right owner’s sound recordings. 12
Æ
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