Washington, D.C.— Future of Music Coalition (FMC), a national non-profit research, education and advocacy organization for musicians, has submitted testimony for the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet’s hearing on Music Licensing, taking place on Wednesday, November 28.

FMC’s testimony takes a critical look at two bills under consideration in Congress: Internet Radio Fairness Act, introduced by Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Interim Fairness in Radio Starting Today Act (Interim FIRST) introduced by Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). According to Deputy Director Casey Rae, “While we’re glad Congress is examining the issue of rate parity across platforms, both of these bills in their current form leave a lot unresolved. To begin with, neither bill establishes a public performance right for sound recordings played on terrestrial radio. Without that, it’s impossible to talk about fairness with regard to broadcasting of any kind.”

The congressional hearing coincides with the launch of FMC’s “Rising Tides” campaign, which aims to demystify these complicated pieces of legislation and the process of rate-setting for internet radio services. The campaign also identifies seven core principles that we argue must be defended as negotiations move forward:

·      Musicians and songwriters must be treated as primary stakeholders in these debates.

·      Rates should be reasonably platform neutral

·      Direct payments to performers must be preserved

·      Rates should balance the growth of new technologies with fair compensation for creators

·      Musicians’ rights to bargain and advocate collectively must be defended.

·      Services should make it easy for listeners to discover and take action

·      Services should recognize the power of listener data for musicians.