Determine What Agency to Petition, Essay Example

Synopsis

As a member of Congress, it has come to my awareness that songwriters are lowly paid. To my knowledge, such issues ensue because the laws that govern and regulate the music industry have failed to keep pace with the advent of technology. For the purpose of this assignment, I seek to make amends to the Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017 that will play a fundamental role in updating the music copyright laws. The laws have failed to suit the needs of the current generation of songwriters as they typically represent the unprecedented agreement between music and the technology industry. As one of the members of Congress, I am focused on repealing part of the Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017 to make significant changes within the music industry. The changes will include modifications on regulations related to notices of non-blanket activities, notices of licensures, usage reports, and adjustments.

Issue and Required Information in Decision-Making

The Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017 established a blanket license primarily for an interactive and a mechanical approach of licensing streaming music services to ensure that creators collect their royalties. The legislation primarily impacts the publication of royalties, with a specific focus on the element of mechanical royalties generated when song compositions are streamed through a digital system or service such as Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal (DSPs), and Amazon Music (Music Licensing Reform, 2018). Ultimately, the legislation focused on creating a collective music society to ensure that composers, songwriters, publishing administrators, lyricists, and publishers are paid. However, progress aimed at ensuring that the songwriters receive what they deserve details the need to modernize this Act. Joint support from the NMPA stakeholders such as the President and the CEO—David Israelite, besides other parties such as the CEO of ASCAP Elizabeth Mathews, strongly paid their attention on introducing clauses within the Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017. Their efforts, which took several months of compromise and collaboration, focused on creating a link between the content producers or songwriters and the tech industry. However, the legislation needed reforms to establish a framework that would allow digital music entities to track the owners of the content besides reforming the rate-setting process primarily for performing rights to ensure that music publishers and songwriters are fairly paid at a faster rate.

In light of this, my panel of adjudicators agreed that these measures call for reforms on repealing part of the legislation to ensure that a framework is defined to track the owner’s content. Given the intensity of pressure within the music industry, my panel was equally forced to focus on replacing the rate courts and the Amendment of Section 114(i) as enshrined in the Copyright Act. These measures enable such rate court judges to consider the paid royalties (Heberlé, 2019). Information that will be used and included in the mechanical licensing process of a collective database will include interoperability, database usability, usage restrictions, and the manner in which confidential information is handled. Data and the required information to aid in decision making were collected from the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), the Songwriters of North America (SONA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and the Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). This decision was primarily informed by the fact that these bodies form part of the music community that plays a fundamental role in understanding and supporting music creators while equally determining and streamlining the industry’s future. The collaborative efforts of different stakeholders and entities within the music industry helped us draft a legislative measure that we believed would play a fundamental role in addressing the areas of concern, as noted herein.

Implementation and/or Regulatory Oversight of the Enacted Policy

The regulatory measure’s changes to address revolved around creating a connection between the songwriters or content producers with the tech industry. On the other hand, the reforms on replacing the rate counts as stipulated in Section 114(i) equally took effect. To effectively implement these changes, collaborative efforts between different stakeholders within the music industry remained fundamental. My panel noted the need to call for different stakeholders such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), among other entities, to support the repealed policy measures jointly. The Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017 primarily directed the Copyright Office to adopt these regulations to govern a new system or blanket regime. The statute will also vest in the office by adopting regulations that are necessary for effectuating the new blanket licensing system and structure. The office will seek public engagement and commitment in promulgating these regulations. On matters of oversight, Congress will require the renowned Copyright office to regulate and observe the implementation of the legislation as appropriate and necessary. This will allow the office to exercise its full authority in monitoring the efficiency of the policies and the procedures established by the Pass the Music Modernization Act of 2017 (Petition to Congress: Pass the Music Modernization Act, 2018). Therefore, the office will ensure that the regulations balance the publics’ interests and protect those of the parties.

Balancing the Interests of Stakeholders and Constituents

My panel worked closely in creating a bill that addressed the interests of different stakeholders within the music industry. The panel focused on leveraging the stakeholders’ interests revolved around the democratization of their needs and flattening the hierarchies within the music industry. We believe that the challenges that widely affect the music industry revolve around the structures in place. Therefore, as a panel, we believe that this measure will bring different stakeholders on board to query several of the legislative deficiencies and devise solutions to the problems.  On the other hand, my panel believes that this approach will play a fundamental role in establishing a collective spirit that incorporates and provides inclusivity to the views and opinions of other stakeholders in the implementation of the proposed framework. Secondly, there is a need to engage all the stakeholders and constituents, whether regulators, consumers of content, or government agencies, into the greater focus of the framework. Another approach of balancing the stakeholders’ interests revolves around avoiding pitfalls that may create a divide between the stakeholders by ensuring that they understand the changes required within the music industry and the level of granularity needed in collectively working together towards the achievement of the specified goal.

Measuring the Success of the Act

The success of this policy action will be determined when services that include Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal (DSPs), and Amazon Music establish efficient measures that may be used in the computation and payment of royalties to the performing artists. The reforms wrought by the policy will be measured by their impact on determining the performance royalty rates, especially for BMI and ASCAP.  This factor will ensure that the rates of the courts will be used as a determinant in reviving the market through the valuation of how the songwriters are paid. Improvements in the rate court process remain another phenomenon used in measuring the legislation’s success (The Music Modernization Act, 2019). The framework will play a fundamental role in streamlining policy measures widely used to manage an array of regulatory measures. These regulatory measures primarily revolve around the management of notices of non-blanket activities, notices of licensures, usage reports, and adjustments.

References

Heberlé, J.-P. (2019). An Interview with Mark SaFranko: The Songwriter. Miranda, 18. https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.18465

Music Licensing Reform. (2018, February 1). Copyright Alliance. https://copyrightalliance.org/trending-topics/music-licensing-reform/

Petition to Congress: Pass the Music Modernization Act. (2018, January 9). Sound Royalties. https://soundroyalties.com/nmpa-music-modernization-act-petition/

The Music Modernization Act. (2019). Www.ascap.com. https://www.ascap.com/about-us/stand-with-songwriters