Yesterday the Senate passed the Music Modernization Act, which includes something called the Classics Act. The House already approved it. Now the bill goes back to the House, where it should be reconfirmed, and then it must be signed by the president. Once that happens, millions of musicians whose music was made before 1972 will start getting paid.
The bill revamps Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act, combining three major pieces of legislation:
The Music Modernization Act, which streamlines the music licensing process to make it easier for rights holders to get paid when their music is streamed online.
The CLASSICS Act (Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society Act) for pre-1972 recordings.
The AMP Act (or Allocation for Music Producers Act), which improves royalty payouts for producers and engineers from SoundExchange when their recordings are used on satellite and online radio. Notably, this is the first time producers have ever been mentioned in copyright law.
This will be a shock to Sirius XM and other online music sources, but it had to happen. The party is over. Great people like Aretha Franklin and Phil Ramone didn’t live long enough tp see this happen. But their heirs will finally see some reward, and plenty of living artists who’ve struggled financially will benefit. Good news for a change!
📽️: When “THANK YOU” is just not enough…we make a video! @RIAA President Mitch Glazier gives thanks where thanks is due #CLASSICSAct #MusicModernizationAct pic.twitter.com/LVD5rCo74T
— RIAA (@RIAA) September 18, 2018
