Nadler Bowing Fair Play Fair Pay Act Monday
House Judiciary IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., plan to officially introduce the Fair Play Fair Pay Act Monday during an event sponsored by artist advocacy group musicFIRST. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., is the bill's other co-sponsor. The bill’s provisions are likely to reflect the provisions Nadler highlighted during a Recording Academy event in February, when he discussed his plans to introduce an omnibus package of previous music licensing legislation aimed at expanding the payments of performance royalties, music industry experts and attorneys said in interviews Friday. Broadcasters and digital media groups, which have opposed attempts to extend performance royalty requirements, said they don’t believe the bill is likely to advance further than previous attempts to address the issue.
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The act would require most terrestrial radio stations to begin paying performance royalties and would require digital broadcasters to begin paying royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings, industry lawyers said. The bill would change the Copyright Royalty Board’s rate calculation standard for satellite radio stations to a “willing buyer, willing seller” standard that would yield increased payments to the recording industry and individual artists, the lawyers said.
The bill also would include language from the Allocation for Music Producers Act (HR-1457), which would give producers the right to seek payment of their royalties via the nonprofit SoundExchange when they have a letter of direction from a featured artist, said Recording Academy Chief Advocacy and Industry Relations Officer Daryl Friedman. Reps. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and Tom Rooney, R-Fla., introduced HR-1457 last month with Recording Academy and SoundExchange backing (see 1503190030). Music industry attorney Chris Castle said he anticipates the bill’s provision on terrestrial performance royalties will include a “carve-out” for radio stations not owned by major broadcasting companies and that it would include a cap on royalty rates.
Nadler appeared to be “keeping this bill pretty targeted” on performance royalty rights rather than straying into other music licensing issues as he had considered doing during the last Congress with his proposed MusicBus legislation (see report in the June 19, 2014, issue), said Castle, who represents artists and musicians and has worked with digital music services. “Every time I’ve seen one of these omnibus bills, they never go anywhere,” he said. The Fair Play Fair Pay Act represents an omnibus approach to royalty rights in that its provisions reflect language in previous bills like HR-1457 and the Respecting Senior Performers as Essential Cultural Treasures Act (Respect) Act, Castle said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is more likely to support a bill like the Fair Play Fair Pay Act if it has broad community support, Castle said. “The thing that would probably be most frustrating for [Goodlatte] is if a bill comes in and the first thing that happens is a bunch of people in the music industry say, ‘They’re trying to screw us,’” Castle said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen here." House Judiciary and the IP Subcommittee held multiple hearings on the performance royalty rights issue in the last Congress, so “I don’t think there’s any reason on the face of it to go slow,” he said. The Recording Academy is to honor Goodlatte as one of its Grammys on the Hill Award winners Wednesday, along with Nadler. Friedman said he will be interested to hear if Goodlatte comments on the Fair Play Fair Pay Act. The Recording Academy also plans to lobby on the Fair Play Fair Pay Act and other legislation Thursday, with 200 of the group’s members set to meet with members of Congress, Friedman said. Goodlatte’s office didn’t comment.
NAB criticized the Fair Play Fair Pay Act Thursday, soon after musicFIRST issued a news release on the bill’s planned Monday introduction. “It is disappointing that this bill retreads years-old policy positions rather than advancing the copyright dialogue through policies that help grow the entire music ecosystem,” an NAB spokesman said in a statement. Digital Media Association General Counsel Greg Barnes said in a statement that 75 percent of the bill “is little more than a series of repackaged legislative proposals that failed to gain traction in previous Congresses.” The bill “sidesteps the interests” of music services “in favor of a legislative proposal that caters to the exclusive interests of a powerful set of intermediaries,” Barnes said. “A truly fair bill would have pursued a more balanced approach.”
NAB also noted growing support for the Local Radio Freedom Act (HConRes 17/SConRes 4), which would make it the sense of Congress that it won’t impose new royalty requirements on terrestrial broadcasters. The resolution has substantial support in Congress, which would effectively kill the Fair Play Fair Pay Act’s chances of passage, an industry lawyer said. HConRes 17 has a combined 149 sponsors and co-sponsors, while SConRes 4 has a combined 13 sponsors and co-sponsors, NAB said. Castle disputed that the Local Radio Freedom Act is a true indicator of possible opposition to the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, saying “I’ve heard from people on the Hill that half the members who signed that didn’t know what they were signing.”