_{By Zach Collier}

A bill working its way through Congress could mark one of the biggest attempts yet to rebalance the relationship between independent musicians and the tech platforms that dominate modern music distribution – as long as it can drum up bipartisan support.

The proposed legislation is called the Protect Working Musicians Act. It was introduced in October 2021 in the House of Representatives by Democratic Representative Ted Deutch shortly before he left congress. It was reintroduced in a revised form as H.R. 5576 by Democratic Representative Deborah Ross in 2023, and it’s believed Representative Ross will again introduce it this week on May 20 or 21.

Before I lose you, this is our petition to ask you to sign this letter to US Senator John Curtis, asking him to sponsor the Protect Working Musicians Act (PWMA). You can sign it here. Here’s why you should sign it.

At its core, the bill is designed to give independent music creators the legal ability to band together and negotiate collectively with major streaming and online distribution platforms – something they’re currently unable to do because of weird effects from existing anti-trust legislation.

“As music distribution has moved online, the market for use and licensing has become distorted and imbalanced,” the bill reads. “The largest Dominant Online Music Distribution Platforms use their market power to distort legal requirements and force music creators into licensing agreements that do not reflect market value. Those agreements essentially dictate a price to music creators. If music creators do not agree to licensing terms, the online platforms profit from unlicensed uploads of music anyway.”

For artists across Utah’s growing music industry, the proposal speaks directly to frustrations many musicians have voiced for years. These frustrations have only intensified with the rise of AI-generated music and major streamers’ total indifference to its proliferation on their platforms (we’re looking at you, Spotify).

Utah is fertile ground for a common sense solution like this. Not only does it have a thriving (yet still nascent) music industry made up of exactly the types of people the bill is seeking to help, but it also has a champion with a solid track record of supporting independent musicians, especially here in Provo: Republican Senator John Curtis.

“I want Provo to be known internationally,” he told me in his office in 2016. “That we’re acknowledged for who we are and our special breed of music and talent… What I hope in ten years is that we’ve successfully branded to the world why we’re unique, why we’re special, and why this is not really duplicated anywhere else. It’s not where you’re trying to measure volume or size or anything like that. I want this to be one slice of the music market that people shouldn’t miss and that we’re an important part of it.”

Curtis’ bipartisan support would not only protect his constituents (the same ones he built a free music festival with), but it would also help signal to the world that Provo is exactly where he hoped it would be in ten years from that statement: an internationally recognized, important music scene leading out on key issues and really making a difference in the industry.

Under current antitrust laws, independent musicians coordinating together on licensing negotiations could potentially face legal issues related to collusion. The Protect Working Musicians Act would create a narrow “safe harbor” exemption allowing qualifying independent creators to collectively negotiate licensing terms with large online music platforms – and even with companies developing generative AI systems. Putting himself on the line like this to give his constituents a way to participate and protect themselves in the big tech conversation would likely reignite support at home – especially during a time when he’s looking to replace Governor Spencer Cox, who has caught heat recently for pushing a wildly unpopular data center development project.

The bill explicitly includes negotiations involving companies building generative artificial intelligence technologies capable of producing audio, text, images, and other media. In practical terms, that could give independent musicians more leverage in future debates over AI training data, voice cloning, and the use of copyrighted recordings in machine learning systems.

The bill also has common-sense guardrails to prevent exploitation of the safe harbor exemption: to qualify under the bill, creators would need to own their own copyrights and either earn less than $1 million annually in licensing revenue or qualify as a small business under federal standards. The legislation would apply specifically to “Dominant Online Music Distribution Platforms,” or companies earning more than $100 million annually from music distribution services.

For independent musicians in places like Provo, where artists often wear every hat themselves – from recording engineer to marketer to booking agent – the bill is crucial. We’re not asking for legislation to solve our problems for us. We’re simply asking for legislation that gives us the ability to solve our own problems without being crushed. The bill is currently backed by the following organizations:

• American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
• American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
• Artist Rights Alliance (ARA)
• Authors Guild
• Future of Music Coalition
• The Recording Academy (The Grammys)
• Music Managers Forum-US (MMF-US)
• Music Artists Coalition
• Music Workers Alliance
• National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA)
• Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television & Radio Artists
• (SAG-AFTRA)
• Society of Composers & Lyricists
• Songwriters Of North America (SONA)
• Songwriters Guild of America
• United Musicians & Allied Workers

Again, please join others in the Utah music community in signing this letter to US Senator John Curtis, asking him to sponsor the Protect Working Musicians Act (PWMA). You can sign it here.

In the meantime, watch a music video from The Strike – Provo alumni who played Rooftop Concert Series under Mayor John Curtis. This video is hosted on a useful big tech video platform that’s critical to our workflow, owned by a different massive multinational corporation that we can’t negotiate with.