Five Years Later – The Music Modernization Act

Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04), ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, gave the following remarks at a field hearing in Nashville, Tenn. titled: "Five Years Later – The Music Modernization Act"

I would like to thank Chairman Issa for calling this important hearing here in Nashville, at the heart of the music industry. The panel before us today is comprised of individuals from many sectors crucial to the creation and dissemination of musical works. I am looking forward to hearing what they have to say about the state of the music economy five years after the passage of the Music Modernization Act. 

Music can be both an expression of culture shared across every member of a community and a deeply personal experience unique to the listener. It can come from both symphonies in marble concert halls and lone performers on city streets. And it can both lull us to sleep and inspire us to action. Music can be many things to many people, and this centrality to the human experience makes it even more important that the music industry is and remains healthy for every link in the production chain. 

Many music creators call my district home. Atlanta, Georgia is the Capitol of hip hop and R&B, with a vibrant network of creators, writers, music labels, recording studios, and music venues. But that is just the beginning. Creators in Georgia are making music in everything from rap to bluegrass to gospel to classical music. Georgia Tech found that in 2016, the music industry in Georgia generated $3.5 billion and employed over 16-thousand people. Today, Georgia’s music industry supports an estimated over-45-thousand jobs, with over-13-thousand royalty recipients, and over-91-thousand songwriters.

Five years ago, I joined Ranking Member Nadler and Chairman Issa as an original cosponsor of the Music Modernization Act, which passed the House unanimously in 2018. The MMA replaced an antiquated, inefficient licensing system that was not able to respond to advancements in technology, where creators were not fairly compensated for their works and publishers, labels, and streamers were constrained by unclear licensing guidelines.

By creating the Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, Congress sought to make it easier for digital services to obtain licenses and creators to collect royalties by creating a blanket license and coordinating royalty payments when a song is streamed online. The MMA would not have been successful if the entire music industry had not united in agreement that something needed to be done. But that does not mean we believe the solution to be perfect. I’m looking forward to hearing from our witnesses about how the MLC is working and what improvements they believe might be necessary. 

In addition to creating the MLC, the Music Modernization Act also sought to pay artists fairly for their work by expanding the circumstances in which Copyright Royalty Judges apply a willing buyer/willing seller rate setting standard and extending federal copyright protections to works created before 1972. Creators should be able to make a living, and I’m looking forward to hearing from our witnesses about their experiences under the new standards.

The MMA would not have been possible without the participation of nearly every sector of the music business. And it is a success story that is instructive for how industries can adapt to changes in technology that completely revolutionize their medium. We cannot—and should not want to—stop innovation, so the question before us is how Congress can work together with industries to protect intellectual property rights even as technologies advance. 

Finally, for the music industry, the challenges of the modern era are not limited to technological innovation. When COVID-19 made it unsafe to gather in large groups, many members of my community who were dependent on live music performances were left with no way to feed their families. In spring 2020, I fought for the inclusion of pandemic unemployment assistance to help freelancers, gig workers, and others not traditionally covered by unemployment insurance gain access to those benefits. And later that year, I cosponsored a bill to “Save our Stages,” which was incorporated into a COVID-19 relief package and made 15 billion dollars in grants available to live venues struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

I’m looking forward to hearing from the creators on this panel as to how the pandemic affected their business, and what Congress can do going forward to keep their part of the industry going strong.

Thank you again to all of the witnesses for being here today, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say.