As an author of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), I am thrilled with the benefits this legislation has brought to music creators and music streaming services. It is rare to see Congress come together in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to address market problems with comprehensive, collaborative, and business-driven solutions.
This bill reforms copyright law for the digital age, and its underlying creation, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), is a shining example of the industry coming together to solve a major market challenge. However, recent attempts by streaming services to redefine the original intent of the law for their own benefit are concerning and must be remedied.
The MLC was created to solve a big problem in the music industry: streaming services were often unable to find the rightful copyright owners, which left them heavily in debt to songwriters and music publishers. This was blocking revenue for the rightful owners and leaving the streaming services with huge debts, leading to a mountain of lawsuits and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. There was a big incentive on both sides to find a better way.
My colleague, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and I have authored legislation that would create a company funded by digital streaming companies and controlled by copyright owners that would receive all mechanical revenue from streaming and distribute that revenue based on copyright ownership. This company would also operate the first-of-its-kind public database to make song ownership information more transparent than ever before.
To establish the MLC, the U.S. Copyright Office created a fair designated period during which anyone could campaign to run the company. A coalition representing the majority of the music publishing and composition industries was formed and elected.
Only five years after launch, MLC has become a huge success story, distributing over $2 billion in royalties to publishers and songwriters with a match rate of over 90%, and running the world's most accurate and open database of music copyright information.
Importantly, because the MLC is responsible for ensuring accurate payments to its songwriter and publisher members, the MMA has made clear that it not only has the authority but also the obligation to enforce its members’ rights if it determines that streaming services have not properly reported or paid. Most recently, the MLC was forced to sue Pandora for underpaying royalties.
Unfortunately, this has led DiMA, which represents the major streaming companies and has a seat on the MLC's board of directors, to try to reinterpret the original intent of the MMA. They are pushing the false idea that the MLC should be “neutral” when it comes to enforcing copyright holders' rights. This is far from our objective.
This definition of neutrality is just another way to take away the voice of those who have fought to use their voice to receive what they should receive in return for their work. This was never the intention.
If MLC does not enforce or litigate as necessary to protect its members' rights, its members will have no recourse to protect their property rights. This concept of neutrality renders MLC powerless and completely undermines the important role of the association. Allowing MLC to distribute royalties is inseparable from MLC's primary purpose of ensuring that royalties are correct.
Trying to convince current lawmakers that the MLC was meant to give equal weight to the opinions of digital companies as the rights of composers is an abuse of the law. Of course, DiMA and its members have a strong incentive to ask the MLC to abandon its role as an enforcer of music creators' copyrights: billions of dollars in royalties are at stake.
The streaming services' vision of a neutral MLC is not aligned with the MMA's original intent — they know this because they were deeply involved in the lengthy negotiations over the bill's language — and the resulting law is fair and allows associations and courts to do their jobs when it comes to disputes.
This milestone of five years since the MMA was signed into law is an important time for reflection and improvement, but this is not the time to redefine the most important piece of music law of our time.
Doug Collins is an attorney and former Congressman representing Georgia's 9th Congressional District. He served as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee and Vice Chairman of the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee. He introduced the Music Modernization Act with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the bill's lead co-sponsor.