President Donald Trump last week signed into law the long-awaited Music Modernization Act. The legislation will reportedly help enhance copyright protection for songwriters and artists in an increasingly popular music-streaming age. The move is a sign of changing times for both music streaming services and for the industry as a whole.

The process of copyrighting music is complicated: After a song is written and recorded, artists or members of their creative team register their track as a sound recording and/or a musical composition with the United States Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. By doing this, they’re claiming the rights to their work. Copyright licenses must then be obtained to stream that music.

This dated process has been an uphill battle for music streaming services. With several players in the game, it’s easy for companies such as Spotify and Apple Music to overlook the legal procedures of obtaining music. Back in December, Wixen Music Publishing sued Spotify for $1.6 billion, claiming the company had thousands of songs on their platform without having obtained the correct license.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

The MMA is designed to simplify the process, eliminating room for error. Songwriters and publishers now have to register their song with the Mechanical Licensing Collective, a music database. Streaming services can use the database to select songs for their platforms — so long as they’ve obtained a license from the MLC. Royalties collected from these license-buyers would then be divvied up to their respective artists and their teams.

The finalization of the MMA marks a major legislative milestone for the music industry in the past 20 years. Music has never been more accessible and it’s only getting better. Technology is advancing and the legal side of things is starting to catch up. Now, music streaming is the standard.

Nowadays, many people would rather pay a monthly subscription and have an extensive selection of music to stream rather than buying individual songs and albums. Songwriters could potentially earn higher royalty amounts with this new law in effect. In a time in which buying physical albums is becoming a thing of the past, this move not only seems to be in favor of artists, but it also demonstrates the government’s recognition of our rapidly advancing digital age.

Published on October 15, 2018 at 8:18 pm