Michael Eames, President of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP); Alisa Coleman, AIMP New York Executive Director; and John Ozier, AIMP Nashville Executive Director, have issued the below joint statement on today’s introduction of the Music Modernization Act in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

“The AIMP is pleased to see that the U.S. Congress is moving forward with the Music Modernization Act, which was introduced today by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). For too long, songwriters and publishers have been forced to deal with an outdated music licensing system that doesn’t work in today’s online world. Now for the first time, the music and technology industry as well as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have come together to address these issues and give rights-holders more control over the licensing and collection of their works. The Act solves a variety of issues that afflict all songwriters and publishers face but will significantly help independent songwriters and independent publishers by adopting a more modern and realistic rate standard, establishing a central public database to ease royalty payments from digital services, removing evidence limitations placed on rights-holders arguing for more accurate royalty rates, allowing PROs to be heard by more than the same two judges, and once and for all establishing that digital services must pay for the use of pre-1972 recordings. Our thanks go out to Rep. Goodlatte and all the representatives who worked on and support this bill, as well as the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) for spearheading the effort and all of our fellow industry trade groups who have helped push it forward. We strongly urge Congress to pass this measure.”