President Donald Trump has signed into law the Music Modernization Act, a comprehensive bill that aims to reform our outdated music licensing system and give music creators an opportunity to obtain compensation that more accurately reflects the value of music. The President said, “The Music Modernization Act closes loopholes in our digital royalty laws to ensure that songwriters, artists, producers, and providers receive fair payment for the licensing of music. I’ve been reading about this for many years. Never thought I’d be involved in it, but I got involved in it. They were treated very unfairly. They’re not going to be treated unfairly anymore.”
As a creator I’m ok with this law. But on the other hand I just started an online radio station that plays music, will this hurt me and others like me is my question…
If you play pre-1972 music, yes. This law puts that music under federal copyright laws, so you would now pay SoundExchange for that music as you do with current music. Otherwise, the law mainly covers how songwriters and producers get paid.