Over the last four years, SoundExchange members have sent many thousands of letters to Congress asking for reform of our music licensing laws. When Congress held hearings at the start of its lengthy copyright review in 2014, it was my honor to represent music creators as a witness before the House Judiciary Committee asking that they modernize our laws by requiring fair pay for all music creators whenever their music is played.

Today, I’m happy to report that our work together is paying off.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the comprehensive
Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447) by a unanimous vote, 415-0. This is
an historic victory that happened because of our collective efforts. It happened because of the industry- wide unity and legislative consensus we worked so hard to achieve. And it happened because of our efforts to help lawmakers understand how important music reform is to you — the music creators who are the lifeblood of our industry.

In 2017 alone, our artist partners and advocates utilized our letter writing campaign to send thousands of constituent letters. United States Senators from all 50 states and Members of Congress from 419 out of 435 districts across the country received letters asking them to support music creators by supporting music licensing reform legislation.

Because of your hard work, we’re on the cusp of success. The fight isn’t over though, and our focus now shifts to the U.S. Senate.

While several pieces of music legislation have been introduced in the Senate, there is not a single comprehensive package yet. We are encouraging our Senate allies to bring these many issues together into a single, comprehensive Music Modernization Act, like the bill passed in the House, to include:

**The CLASSICS Act (S. 2393) to ensure equal treatment for legacy artists who recorded music before 1972;

**The AMP Act (S. 2625), which builds on SoundExchange’s existing process for honoring letters of directions for producers and sound engineers; and

**The mechanical licensing reform bill (also called the Music Modernization Act). Lawmakers need to hear your voice to make this happen.