We are the music makers

Topic

Artist-rights

  • AM/FM radio still pays US recording artists nothing, and the American Music Fairness Act has stalled again

    The American Music Fairness Act would make AM and FM stations pay performers and labels for the recordings they play, as satellite and internet radio already must. As of 23 Oct 2026 neither the Senate nor the House bill has gone beyond committee referral, despite a Senate hearing in December 2025. A resolution opposing any new radio fee has more than 230 House cosponsors.

    Artist rightsvia US Government Publishing Office (govinfo)

  • The Copyright Office's AI training report is still a draft 17 months on, and its critics are using that

    The US Copyright Office's report on generative AI training, released as a "pre-publication version" on 9 May 2025, has never been finalised. Its view that some training is fair use and some isn't, and that market dilution is real harm, is the closest thing music has to an official US position. Litigants cite it, the Justice Department attacks it, and the two big 2025 rulings didn't cite it at all.

    Artist rightsvia US Copyright Office

  • FTC v. Ticketmaster survives dismissal: the BOTS Act and fee claims head to discovery

    On 28 September 2026 a federal judge in Los Angeles refused to throw out the FTC and seven states' case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster over broker-friendly ticket limits and drip pricing. That isn't a finding that the companies broke the law. It does let the case go ahead on the theory that a ticket platform can be liable under the BOTS Act for reselling tickets brokers got around its limits to buy, and that theory is the part of the ruling artists should care about.

    Artist rightsvia US District Court for the Central District of California (copy hosted by TicketNews)

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