The Music Modernization Act, passed just five years ago, could quickly become obsolete amid the growing threat of artificial intelligence (AI), lawmakers and music industry figures said at a hearing in Nashville on Tuesday.
“If we don’t get AI right, it could very well render not only the Music Modernization Act obsolete – but also the policy choices we make next. The stakes could hardly be higher,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote in an op-ed ahead of the hearing.
Issa, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, convened the hearing featuring music executives, musicians and songwriters.
Congress passed the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA) in 2018 with the intention of making both statutory licensing and royalty distribution more fair and efficient for creators and digital music providers.
David Porter, a producer and hall-of-fame songwriter, said the MMA was a success in a lot of ways. “Whether you’re a music creator or a legislator, the goal is to make something worthwhile that will endure and change lives,” Porter said. “And that’s exactly what the MMA has done.”
For one, it created the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) to streamline digital royalties for songwriters. Porter added that the Classics Protection and Access Act, part of the MMA, also allowed creators to collect royalties when music they made before 1972 was streamed.
