H.R. 861 · 119th Congress

American Music Fairness Act of 2025

Introduced on Jan 31, 2025 by Darrell Issa (R-CA-48). 13 cosponsors, 10 of them from another party. Latest action (Jan 31, 2025): Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Jan 31, 2025
Cosponsors
13
10 from the other party
Policy area
Commerce
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide fair treatment of radio stations and artists for the use of sound recordings, and for other purposes.

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Jan 31, 2025). Public domain.

American Music Fairness Act of 2025

This bill establishes that the copyright holder of a sound recording shall have the exclusive right to perform the sound recording through an audio transmission. (Currently, the public performance right only covers performances through a digital audio transmission in certain instances, which means that nonsubscription terrestrial radio stations generally do not have to get a license to publicly perform a copyright-protected sound recording.)

Under the bill, a nonsubscription broadcast transmission must have a license to publicly perform such sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board must periodically determine the royalty rates for such a license. When determining the rates, the board must base its decision on certain information presented by the parties, including the radio stations' effect on other streams of revenue related to the sound recordings.

Terrestrial broadcast stations (and the owners of such stations) that fall below certain revenue thresholds may pay certain flat fees, instead of the board-established rate, for a license to publicly perform copyright-protected sound recordings.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Darrell IssaR-CA-48Sponsor

Democrats · 10

Republicans · 3

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Jan 31, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Jan 31, 2025Introduced in House
  3. Jan 31, 2025 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. IHEARTMEDIA INC.25 reports
    $6.4M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: IHEARTMEDIA + ENTERTAINMENT, INC.$14.5K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 100%
  2. Recording Academy12 reports
    $954.5K reported (all issues)
  3. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS9 reports
    $17M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERSAI match · 100%
  4. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC, INC.6 reports
    $120K reported (all issues)
  5. SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (FORMERLY KNOWN AS SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT)6 reports
    $2.3M reported (all issues)
  6. UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP6 reports
    $3.9M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: UNIVERSAL MUSIC - MGB NA LLC$46.8K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 98%
  7. MAZDA MOTOR OF AMERICA DBA MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS5 reports
    $300K reported (all issues)
  8. CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION4 reports
    $4.1M reported (all issues)
  9. COUNCIL FOR INNOVATION PROMOTION (C4IP)3 reports
    $270K reported (all issues)
  10. Iowa Broadcasters Association2 reports
    $10K reported (all issues)
  11. Maryland-District of Columbia-Delaware Broadcasters Association2 reports
    $20K reported (all issues)
  12. North Carolina Association of Broadcasters2 reports
    $30K reported (all issues)
  13. SALEM MEDIA GROUP, INC.2 reports
    $130K reported (all issues)
  14. ZERO EMISSION TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION2 reports
    $240K reported (all issues)
  15. National Association of BroadcastersBroadcasters1 report
    $15K reported (all issues)Federal contractor: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERSAI match · 100%

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.