Big news for the music industry is thumping out of Washington D.C. this year, as even Congressmen are beginning to voice their opinions about the industry’s reform. While big name artists such as Taylor Swift and deadmau5 have made their opinions known loud and clear about the current state of the industry, post-production workers for these artists have been left out of the big picture. As monetizing music is becoming more and more difficult with music streaming and p2p file sharing, two Congressmen have stepped in to try and “give producers the statutory right to receive compensation”.
Representatives Joe Crowley (D-New York) and Tom Rooney (R-Florida) introduced a new House Bill earlier this year that would give the Producers, Mixers, and Engineers a fair share of the digital royalty pie. Aptly named The Allocation for Music Producer Act, or AMP Act (H.R. 1457), the bill outlines a framework which studio workers could then use to negotiate their compensation terms through a letter of direction process. If passed, the AMP Act would also allow the Post Production workers the ability to negotiate with artists, or their heirs, to receive appropriate royalty payments for sound recordings older than 1995. The Post-Production workers would split roughly 2% of they royalties digitally generated by the songs they apply for.
Rep. @TomRooney & I introduced #AMPAct to allow music producers to receive fair pay http://t.co/qfMOBCUJBL@GRAMMYAdvocacy@SoundExchange
— Rep. Joe Crowley (@repjoecrowley) March 19, 2015
H/T: Your EDM
