The Music Modernization Act: A Songwriter's Perspective

Abstract

This chapter is a songwriter’s essay on the Music Modernization Act and how it attempts to address the future of the songwriting profession in the digital age. Although the advent of streaming has resuscitated the music industry writ large, songwriters—unlike artists and record labels—are regulated by the government in ways that have stopped them from receiving their fair share of the growing pie. The author explains from a songwriter’s perspective how the MMA was designed to address these issues and assesses its strengths and weaknesses, the compromises that led to its passage, and the challenges going forward.

Keywords: copyright, MMA, streaming, songwriter, SONA, MLC, consent decrees, safe harbor, mechanicals