U.S. House of Representatives Addresses:
- The Honorable Jim Jordan, Chair, Committee on the Judiciary
- The Honorable Scott Fitzgerald, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Committee on the Judiciary
- The Honorable Darrell Issa, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Committee on the Judiciary
- The Honorable Nick Langworthy, Committee on Oversight and Accountability
Dear Chairmen Jordan, Chairman Issa, Rep. Fitzgerald and Rep. Langworthy,
The Songwriters Guild of America (“SGA”), the Society of Composers & Lyricists (“SCL”), and Music Creators North America (“MCNA”) are a coalition of independent music creator advocacy organizations whose interests are directed solely toward protecting and advancing the rights of the tens of thousands of independent American songwriters, composers and lyricists. Our collective global mission, initially launched by SGA nearly a century ago, can be accurately summarized in three simple words” “Protect Music Creators.”
We are writing today to offer our genuine thanks and support for your combined leadership and concern over the plight of our constituent creators, whose incomes in the digital age –as you are keenly aware– have been decimated. This diminution in our abilities to earn a living and support our families despite the broad, public consumption and enjoyment of our musical works stem from a number of factors, including: gross, exclusionary unfairness in the governmental setting of royalty rates; the inability of copyright laws to remain current and robust shields against unauthorized uses of copyright-protected music; the failure of technologists to understand and support fair remuneration for the very content creators on whose works their businesses are built and their futures depend; and, a level of consolidation and vertical integration within the music publishing and recording industry that has placed the interests of mega-conglomerates in an utterly dominant position over creators and small businesses in every music-related economic sphere (including within quasi-governmental collectives such as the Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”)).
The fact that you have heard and are acting upon our pleas for greater Congressional oversight on issues ranging from generative artificial intelligence & enhanced transparency of royalty collectives to general fairness & market-rate remuneration for uses of our works is truly gratifying to us. For the past quarter century, the phenomenal advances in digital technologies we have witnessed have repeatedly been accompanied by promises that all stakeholders, including creators and small businesses, would benefit in ways commensurate with the value realized by both large corporations and members of the public. Those promises have yet to be realized, and as a result, the negative value gap between creators and other interested parties is growing ever-wider even as full transparency remains as far-off an aspiration as it has ever been.
Moreover, music creators are vastly outspent by multi-billion-dollar corporations, and thus under-represented, in advocacy initiatives on virtually every issue of fairness connected to the music industry– whether before the Copyright Royalty Board (“CRB”), in the MLC boardroom, on hearing panels before Governmental oversight agencies, or in the courtroom. For those reasons alone, we are ecstatic that through our public submissions and our contacts with your good offices, you understand our plight and find our cause just. We are even more pleased by the fact that you and your colleagues have increased your activities in reaching out to us and others to explore ways in which the music playing field can be leveled for those who create the music that has made American musical culture both the envy and the inspiration of the world.
We look forward to working with you and your staffs on all of the matters raised in your recent communications with the U.S. Copyright Office and in your legislative statements in general, including greater transparency throughout the music industry, preservation of performance royalty rates at current levels, MLC reforms and improvements such as establishment of a board of directors equally balanced between independent creators and administrators, enhanced & equitable protections for creators in generative AI contexts, and many other issues of economic importance to U.S. songwriters, composers and lyricists on a national and global basis.
Thank you again for all Congress does in pursuit of advancing American musical culture and protecting its creators.
Respectfully,
Rick Carnes
President, Songwriters Guild of America
Ashley Irwin
President, Society of Composers & Lyricists
Eddie Schwartz
President, Music Creators North America
CC
Charles J. Sanders, Esq.
Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees
Shira Perlmutter. US Register of Copyrights
