Rashida Tlaib, House Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has introduced a resolution that seeks to establish a new royalty program. The resolution effectively continues her fight for musicians to earn a “reasonable” living from their recorded music. “Expressing the sense of Congress that it is the duty of the Federal Government to establish a new royalty program to provide income to featured and non-featured performing artists whose music or audio content is listened to on streaming music services, like Spotify,” reads the bill. Tlaib’s resolution proposes the royalty rate be administered by SoundExchange and the Copyright Royalty Board, who would calculate, collect, retain and distribute payments to the appropriate copyright ...
The hammer may soon come down on digital service providers. It’s an axiom among music industry professionals that royalties generated from streaming services are abysmal. While these companies rake in record profits and lease luxury office spaces for their employees, the musicians who constitute their userbases often bemoan their business models for practices many deem to be exploitative. Rashida Tlaib, the U.S. representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, has written a letter to Congress proposing that musicians should be fairly compensated for their work distributed by digital service providers like Spotify and Apple Music. Tlaib says she has been working closely with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) to advocate for royalty reform. “W...