American Music Fairness Act of 2025
Latest action · Jan 31, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 31, 2025
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
American Music Fairness Act of 2025
This bill establishes that the copyright holder of a sound recording shall have the exclusive right to perform the sound recording through an audio transmission. (Currently, the public performance right only covers performances through a digital audio transmission in certain instances, which means that nonsubscription terrestrial radio stations generally do not have to get a license to publicly perform a copyright-protected sound recording.)
Under the bill, a nonsubscription broadcast transmission must have a license to publicly perform such sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board must periodically determine the royalty rates for such a license. When determining the rates, the board must base its decision on certain information presented by the parties, including the radio stations' effect on other streams of revenue related to the sound recordings.
Terrestrial broadcast stations (and the owners of such stations) that fall below certain revenue thresholds may pay certain flat fees, instead of the board-established rate, for a license to publicly perform copyright-protected sound recordings.
Cosponsors 13
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jan 31, 2025 to Feb 23, 2026, with 4 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-NY | Jerrold Nadler | Original | Jan 31, 2025 |
| R-TN | Mark E. Green | Original | Jan 31, 2025 |
| D-CA | Ted Lieu | Original | Jan 31, 2025 |
| R-CA | Tom McClintock | Original | Jan 31, 2025 |
| D-MD | Jamie Raskin | Mar 4, 2025 | |
| D-TX | Lloyd Doggett | Mar 4, 2025 | |
| D-CA | Julia Brownley | Mar 18, 2025 | |
| D-CA | Judy Chu | Mar 24, 2025 | |
| D-WA | Pramila Jayapal | Jun 2, 2025 | |
| D-CA | Laura Friedman | Jul 14, 2025 | |
| D-PA | Dwight Evans | Aug 29, 2025 | |
| R-TX | Lance Gooden | Feb 13, 2026 | |
| D-CA | Sydney Kamlager-Dove | Feb 23, 2026 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jan 31, 2025Introduced in House
- Jan 31, 2025Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 326 | American Music Fairness Act | Related bill | Jan 30, 2025 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Commerce.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 31, 2025Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.
