congress
Page: 3
TikTok is ramping up a public relations campaign to fend off the possibility of a nationwide ban by the Biden administration, and it’s bringing some unconventional advocates to help: online influencers.
Dozens of TikTok creators — some with millions of followers on the video-sharing app — came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby in favor of the platform, one day before lawmakers are slated to grill the company’s chief executive about concerns over user data falling into the hands of the Chinese government.
Shou Zi Chew plans to tell Congress on Thursday that TikTok, which was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, is committed to user safety, data protection and security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence. He will also answer questions from U.S. lawmakers worried about the social media platform’s effects on its young user base.
At the heart of TikTok’s trouble is a Chinese national intelligence law that would compel Chinese companies to fork over data to the government for whatever purposes it deems to involve national security. There’s also concern Beijing might try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation through the platform.
At a media event coordinated by TikTok on Wednesday, some content creators acknowledged that concerns about data security are legitimate, but pointed to precautions the company is taking, such as a $1.5 billion plan — dubbed Project Texas — to route all U.S. data to domestic servers owned and maintained by the software giant Oracle.
TikTok has been attempting to sell that proposal to the Biden administration, but skeptics have argued it doesn’t go far enough. The administration is reportedly demanding the company’s Chinese owners sell their stakes or face a nationwide ban.
“I don’t know much about politics, but I know a lot about fashion, and I know a lot about people,” Ok said. “And just to be here and share my story is what TikTok has invited me to do.”
Tensions around TikTok have been building on Capitol Hill, reaching a boiling point late last year when a proposal to ban the app off of government phones passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. House Republicans are pushing a bill that would give Biden the power to ban the app.
Other bills have also been introduced — some bipartisan — including a measure that would circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the social media company.
The effort to target TikTok is part of a larger, tougher approach that Congress has taken in the past several months as China’s relationship with two U.S. adversaries — Russia and Iran — has come into focus. A recent incident with a spy balloon forced even some wary congressional Democrats to join Republicans in opposition, and there is now a strong bipartisan concern in Washington that Beijing would use legal and regulatory power to seize American user data or use the platform to push favorable narratives or misinformation.
TikTok’s response to the political pressure can be seen all around the nation’s Capitol, with the company putting up ads in area airports and metro stations that include promises of securing users data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users. Last year, the company spent more than $5.3 million on dispatching lobbyists to the Hill to make its case, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks lobbying spending.
On Thursday, Chew will be sticking to a familiar script as he urges officials against pursuing an all-out ban on TikTok or for the company to be sold off to new owners. TikTok’s efforts to ensure the security of its users’ data go “above and beyond” what any of its rivals are doing, according to Chew’s prepared remarks released ahead of his appearance before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Chew pushed back against fears that TikTok could become a tool of China’s ruling Communist Party because its parent company, ByteDance, was founded in Beijing and also operates from there.
“Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.
He distanced TikTok from its Chinese roots and denied the “inaccurate” belief that TikTok’s corporate structure makes it “beholden to the Chinese government.” ByteDance has evolved into a privately held “global enterprise,” Chew said, with 60% owned by big institutional investors, 20% owned by the Chinese entrepreneurs who founded it and the rest by employees.
It’s “emphatically untrue” that TikTok sends data on its American users to Beijing, he said.
“TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government,” Chew said. “Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever made.”
Whether those promises will alleviate concern is another matter. TikTok has come under fire in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, where a growing number of governments have banned the app from devices used for official business. India, Afghanistan and Indonesia have banned it nationwide.
Chew, a 40-year-old Singaporean who was appointed CEO in 2021, said in a TikTok video this week that the congressional hearing comes at a “pivotal moment” for the company, which now has 150 million American users.
Chew said TikTok’s data security project is the right answer, not a ban or a sale of the company.
“No other social media company, or entertainment platform like TikTok, provides this level of access and transparency,” he said.
The company started deleting the historical protected data of U.S. users from non-Oracle servers this month, Chew said. When that process is completed later this year, all U.S. data will be protected by American law and controlled by a U.S.-led security team.
“Under this structure, there is no way for the Chinese government to access it or compel access to it,” he said.
He said a TikTok ban would hurt the U.S. economy and small American businesses that use the app to sell their products, while reducing competition in an “increasingly concentrated market.” He added that a sale “would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access.”
Live Nation president/CFO Joe Berchtold might have been the sole defender of his company’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January, but behind the scenes, he wasn’t alone.
Advising Berchtold and managing key relationships on Capitol Hill is a small army of over 30 lobbyists, deployed to defend the company from growing criticism by senators like Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Klobuchar, who serves as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, has made repeated calls to the Department of Justice to investigate Ticketmaster and break up the company if any wrongdoing is uncovered during a DOJ review of the consent decree it created to foster competition in ticketing. That review is expected to wrap up soon.
While Live Nation’s lobbying spending has been historically low for a company of its size and domi- nance, that’s changing. Last year, the company spent nearly five times as much on lobbying as it has in the past, according to data from Open Secrets, which uses public records to track such spending. From 2012 to 2018, Live Nation spent an average of $225,000 annually to lobby federal officials. In 2022, its annual lobbying expenses had increased to $1.1 million.
The company’s agendas include defending criticism regarding Ticketmaster’s handling of the Swift presale last November.
One of those insiders is Seth Bloom, a former longtime general counsel for the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee and advisory board member for the American Antitrust Institute. Another is Jonathan Becker, a former chief of staff and chief counsel to Klobuchar who now serves as a partner at law firm Mayer Brown and represented a dozen big-name clients in 2022, including Meta, Microsoft and Phillip Morris.
Live Nation now spends significantly more than its competitors in the touring sector. Last year, enter- tainment conglomerate AEG spent $140,000 on federal lobbying, according to Open Secrets, while secondary-market ticketing competitor SeatGeek spent $170,000 and Viagogo, the British company that bought StubHub in 2020, spent $140,000. Live Nation partner company Oak View Group spent $570,000 on lobbying, while Spotify, which has rolled out a new ticketing offering for concert promoters and is hoping to broaden its reach within the live space, spent $710,000.
Live Nation could spend even more this year as it ramps up efforts to exit the consent decree once the five year extension ends in 2024. The company now has more than seven lobbying firms working for it on issues that include ticketing, event safety and Federal Aviation Administration rules on the use of drones at events.
When it comes to Taylor Swift, even Attorney General Merrick Garland is a bonafide fan. The head of the Department of Justice cleverly put his Swiftie status to the test when testifying before the Senate on Wednesday (March 1).
Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding DOJ oversight, Garland told the committee that he’s “pretty familiar” with the superstar and her music, but according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the federal government’s chief law enforcement officer has almost all of Swift’s CDs on display in his office and even counts “Shake It Off” as his favorite song in her discography.
Apparently, Garland’s entry point into the Swiftian musical universe came courtesy of his two daughters, who would listen to 2006’s Taylor Swift and 2008’s Fearless on repeat as he drove them to school every morning. But even since then, he’s stayed on top of the singer’s discography. “My daughter sent me Midnights right away as a CD, which I appreciate is a little prehistoric at this point,” he quipped to the WSJ. “And then she told me the playlist order in which I should listen to the songs.”
During his testimony, the attorney general also couldn’t resist sneaking a lyrical reference into the proceedings. When pressed about Senator Amy Klobuchar — who counts Red single “I Knew You Were Trouble” as her favorite Taylor song — having anti-trust material regarding the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and LiveNation in her possession, Garland cleverly responded, “I know that all too well.”
While the ticketing mess that prompted every politician and government figure to sneak her lyrics into the public record continues to play out in Congress, Swift herself is preparing to kick off The Eras Tour with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz. on March 17 and 18.
Irving Azoff teed off on scalpers, Stubhub and the federal government in a no-holds-barred panel Wednesday during the Pollstar Live conference at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Azoff, along with artist Garth Brooks, MSG Entertainment chairman James Dolan and former top Department of Justice antitrust official Makan Delrahim, took the federal government to task for the way it handled last month’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ticketing. Despite evidence that the problems linked to the ticket sale were the result of a massive bot attack, most senators at the hearing blamed Ticketmaster for service disruptions and tried to link customer dissatisfaction with the ticket sale to antitrust allegations that the company is operating as a monopoly.
Delrahim, who investigated Live Nation and Ticketmaster on behalf of the Department of Justice in 2019, told his fellow panelists that Congress was convoluting two separate issues and “were well intentioned, but didn’t understand the issues” facing the primary ticketing business. Azoff was more aggressive in his comments. He said most problems in ticketing were “likely perpetrated by scalpers” who “steal massive amounts of tickets” and pay lobbyists to “to demonize Ticketmaster, and actually make laws to support and protect scalpers instead of artists or fans.”
The panel was a call for unity within the music business after the senate hearing left many in live entertainment feeling rattled, including many of Live Nation’s own competitors.
The touring community has stayed silent through most of the sector’s controversies in the post-pandemic period – including consumer frustration over high prices for Adele, Bruce Springsteen and Blink-182 tickets – leaving Ticketmaster to take most of the incoming barrage. And the Senate Judiciary Committee revealed — to many people’s surprise — how angry and often misinformed politicians are with Ticketmaster, and by extension, the concert industry writ large.
The panel was held during an annual conference sponsored by Pollstar, a long-running trade publication now owned by Azoff, Tim Leiweke and the Oak View Group. Wednesday’s panel was the concert businesses’ first attempt to create a unified voice between buildings, artists, promoters and ticketing companies and to launch a new offensive targeting scalpers who, as Brooks pointed out, are becoming increasingly effective at using bots to “slow the system down so people get frustrated and immediately head to the secondary markets.” Dolan noted scalpers have made it very difficult to get tickets into the hands of people “who don’t have seven figure incomes.”
No artist “wants their fans to have to pay for a ticket that is exponentially higher than face value,” Azoff said. “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Washington isn’t focused on the real issue — screwing artists and their fans. Our government has a long history of screwing artists.” Add in the explosion of fraudulent and misleading ticketing sites and the scourge of speculative ticket listings, and it’s easy to see why Azoff, Dolan and the other panelists are alarmed about the growth of the secondary ticketing business.
They’re not wrong, but the situation may also not be as dire as Azoff and his compatriots want to make it seem. Unlike sports ticketing where nearly all non-season-ticket sales are handled by a small cadre of elite brokers, the concert business has been highly effective at delegitimizing the secondary ticketing industry and preventing sites like StubHub from gaining direct access to ticketing inventory. Brokers have further been stymied by initiatives like Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan and SafeTix, which have proven effective at reducing the number of tickets sold on the primary market. In fact, the primary ticketing business’ success at stopping the secondary industry less than a decade ago is why most scalpers are now resorting to such extreme measures to procure tickets.
This is mostly good news for Azoff. His worst fears about the growth of the secondary ticketing market have not materialized, and today the industry has been marginalized and to the point that some actors have resorted to illegal acts to procure tickets.
As Delrahim explained, there are already existing laws on the books and “all sorts of limits” the government can place on scalpers. Existing securities law regulating the short selling of stocks could be applied to speculative ticket listings, noting that prosecutors with the Southern District of New York have “already brought a number of prosecutions” for what he calls “naked short selling.” There are also Federal Trade Commission laws banning “deceptive and unfair practices” that could be better enforced.
“The FTC should open an investigation against speculative ticket sellers who go online and try to sell tickets way before they have been sold – that’s a clear violation of the artist rights,” he added.
Compelling the government to enforce its own laws is difficult, though, and Live Nation and Ticketmaster are not equipped to slow down the bad behavior of the secondary ticketing industry on its own. Instead, Azoff made a rare plea to the audience of touring business professionals for help.
“If you agree with us,” he said, “you all have work to do because there’s a lot of weird bills being proposed out there and the people in this room have a chance to go out and let fans be heard. Ultimately, this is going to be decided at the local and municipal level and that’s where all of us need to bring the fight.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Maxine Waters, a battle-tested member of Congress, has long been a fierce champion for the American people while representing California and other members of the Democratic Party. During a House Rules Committee hearing, Waters handled the false accusations from Republican Party opponents that she embraces socialism, doing so with expert ease.
Rep. Maxine Waters of California was present at the Tuesday (Jan. 31) hearing for a debate to sign a resolution against socialism, a long-running crusade for conservative members of Congress still worshipping at the feet of McCarthyism and threats of the “Red Scare.”
Waters, who sits as a ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, pushed back at the charges of socialism levied against her by Rep. Nick Langworthy of New York, after the congressman asked Waters to address a 2019 declaration issued by former President Doandl Trump that America will never fall under socialist rule.
“One of the problems I have with this resolution is, I don’t know everything that you’re talking about when you talk about socialism,” Water fired back. “There are things that you embrace that fall within that so-called socialism definition.”
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania then went on a half-baked attack against Waters in demanding she condemns socialism, but it failed spectacularly.
“The American public is going to wonder why Republicans are wasting our time today with this divisive resolution instead of focusing on the real threats to our economy and democracy,” Waters said. “What is this all about? Is it about saying you want to cut Social Security? You want to cut Medicare? You don’t care about the debt ceiling? Please.”
Rep. Reschenthaler then stepped in a steaming pile of horse puckey of his party’s own doing.
“You can’t condemn socialism?” Reschenthaler asked. “In your opening remarks, you were talking about Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi. You know what they all have in common, right?”
Waters simply fired back, “Trump.”
Classic Auntie Maxine.
Check out some of the reactions of Rep. Maxine Waters expertly PWNING the GOP MAGA Cultist Crew below from Twitter.
—
Photo: Tom Williams / Getty
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, will testify in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in late March in his first appearance before Congress, according to a statement from the committee’s chair, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
The Republican representative from Washington said Chew is expected to comment on TikTok’s data security and user privacy policies, its impact on children and the company’s ties with China’s Communist Party.
The popular short-form video app and influential music discovery tool has become a lightning rod for political controversies as lawmakers on both sides have questioned the company’s handling of U.S. users’ data and whether it’s obligated to share user data with China’s ruling Communist Party. The app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
In an emailed statement, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the hearing was to take place on March 23 and said they welcome the opportunity to “set the record straight about TikTok, ByteDance, and the commitments we are making to address concerns about U.S. national security.”
“We hope that by sharing details of our comprehensive plans with the full committee, Congress can take a more deliberative approach to the issues at hand,” the spokesperson said.
Congress is currently considering a bill introduced in December by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Flor.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) that would effectively ban TikTok and any other social media company headquartered in China, Russia or a handful of other countries from operating in the United States.
In addition, a number of U.S. states and large state universities have issued orders restricting access to TikTok on state-issued mobile devices and over campus internet.
In her own statement, Rodgers said that Bytedance has “knowingly allowed” the Chinese Communist Party to access U.S. users’ data, and her committee aims to ask TikTok for “complete and honest answers for people.”
“Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms,” Rodgers said.
A TikTok spokesperson refuted Rodgers’ statement.
“There is no truth to Rep. McMorris Rodgers’ claim that TikTok has made U.S. user data available to the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party has neither direct nor indirect control of ByteDance or TikTok,” the spokesperson said. “Moreover, under the proposal we have devised with our country’s top national security agencies through CFIUS, that kind of data sharing—or any other form of foreign influence over the TikTok platform in the United States—would not be possible.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
Rep. Cori Bush is currently making waves in the U.S. House of Reprensativies amid the ongoing debacle that is the Speak of the House selection process. After Rep. Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failed to gain support from his Republican Party cohorts, Bush claims that a Black Republican congressman is being used as a “prop” by the MAGA faction of the party.
Rep. Cori Bush, 46, is one of the rising star members of Congress after assuming office back in 2021 and is known for her outspoken views and unwavering critique of the GOP. The Democratic Party congresswoman fired a shot toward the opposing party after McCarthy failed yet again to assume the Speaker role due to some fringe members of the Republican Party withholding their vote over dissatisfaction with some of his positions.
Bush took to Twitter to blast Republican Congress members for attempting to push a Black candidate among its ranks for the Speaker role in Rep. Byron Donalds. In the tweet, Bush wrote, “FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.”
Bush continued with, “His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic.”
Donalds’ little feelings were hurt and tweeted back, “FWIW, nobody asked @CoriBush her opinion on the matter. Before you judge my agenda, let’s have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don’t be a crab in a barrel!”
Rep. Dan Bishop, getting in the middle of Black people’s business uninvited, called Bush racist for her jab at Donalds.
And as of this writing, Rep. McCarthy is still not the Speaker of the House.
—
Photo: Getty
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images / Getty
As Republicans continue to hold up the congressional duties of our elected officials due to their reluctance to vote in Kevin McCarthy as the Speaker of the House, newly elected member of U.S. Congress Robert Garcia already knows how he plans on being sworn in once things get back to normal, and it’s a pretty interesting way of going about his inauguration.
Earlier this week the California congressman took to Twitter to reveal that when it comes time to get sworn into the 118th United States Congress, Robert Garcia will be using three items that mean the world to him including a photo of his parents whom he lost to the COVID pandemic, his certificate of citizenship, and an original copy of Superman #1 from the Library of Congress.
While the picture and certificate of citizenship makes sense, it’s interesting that he chose the priceless comic book as an item to use as he prepares to work for the people of the United States. Still, the first Latino and first openly gay mayor to ever be elected to be Mayor of Long Beach, California told Buzzfeed that the reason he chose the comic book is because he “learned to read and write English reading comics as a kid,” and ultimately “Never stopped reading.” Neither have we.
As for why he chose the Man of Steel over other superheroes, Garcia said, “I’ve read almost all genres, but Superman is always the character that stood out and spoke to me the most.”
He must’ve been heartbroken like the rest of us when he found out that Henry Cavill wasn’t going to be returning as Superman in James Gunn’s reboot of Warner Bros. DCEU.
Unfortunately for Garcia, he won’t be taking that Superman oath anytime soon as far-right MAGA Republicans and Conservative Republicans continue to bicker over who’ll be the next Speaker of the House and begin swearing in the next members of congress. But when that time does come, y’all know Robert Garcia will be flying high like his favorite superhero.
The Recording Academy is celebrating a “major global victory” for music as the PEACE For Music Diplomacy Act passes through the House and the Senate as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The Senate voted Thursday (Dec. 15) to approve the massive defense bill, which includes The PEACE (Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange) Act. This follows the House’s bipartisan passage of the paperwork last week.
The Recording Academy has thrown its advocacy efforts behind the bill since it was first introduced January in the House by 2022 Grammys on the Hill honorees Rep. Michael McCaul and former Rep. Ted Deutch.
The act, it has been said, would use music and music-related global exchange programs as a tool to build cross-cultural understanding.
Specifically, the Recording Academy notes, the bill leverages partnerships with the private sector when designing and implementing its music-related exchange programs, and authorizes music-related exchanges that “advance peace abroad.”
At October’s District Advocate Day, almost 2,000 Recording Academy members met with Congressional reps to discuss pending legislation affecting creators, including the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act.
The behind-the-scenes advocacy work and passage of the bipartisan $858 billion defense bill is a reminder of “the power of music and its capacity to increase understanding between diverse cultures and people around the world,” comments Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr.
The legislation is now on President Joe Biden’s desk awaiting his signature.
“The Recording Academy is grateful to Rep. McCaul, former Rep. Deutch, and Senators Leahy and Tillis for their support of this important legislation, and we look forward to championing future cross-sector partnerships that will allow music creators to promote peace across the globe.”
Read more here on the NDAA.
Advocates representing a wide cross-section of the music industry are again urging Congress to pass the Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act, the long-simmering legislation that would provide an extra tax break to musicians, technicians and producers for recording sessions.
“Prior to the conclusion of the 117th Congress, the American music community calls on you to support American music creation that is still reeling from the pandemic by passing into law the bipartisan and bicameral Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act,” reads a Nov. 15 letter sent to Congressional leadership, co-signed by 23 groups across the business.
The Recording Academy, which made the bill a major focus of its Grammys on the Hill event in April as well as its annual District Advocate Day in October, continues to lead the charge. During the latter event, held on Oct. 6, approximately 2,000 Academy members participated in lobbying for the HITS Act and other music industry priorities at nearly 200 U.S. congressional offices in Washington, D.C.
“Our hope is that we can get it done here before the 117th comes to a close because we have a lot of bipartisan support, bicameral support [in the] House and Senate,” says Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. “I really feel like this is something we should be able to get done and we’re hoping we can get done in the next few weeks.”
The HITS Act would allow musicians, technicians and producers to deduct 100% of recording expenses up to $150,000 on their taxes in the year they’re incurred. That’s a change from the current law, which requires music creators to amortize those expenses over the economic life of a sound recording, a period that usually ranges between three and four years.
The bipartisan bill was first introduced in the House on July 31, 2020 (followed by a companion bill in the Senate on Dec. 3, 2020), though it failed to pass as part of the two pandemic relief packages or as part of the $3.5 billion budget reconciliation package known as Build Back Better, which was ultimately halved and renamed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 before being signed into law in August. Now, with only a month to go before the changeover to a new, split Congress — Democrats will retain control of the Senate while Republicans will control the House of Representatives — advocates are hoping the bill can finally, successfully make it through the gauntlet as part of a must pass bill during the last few weeks of the year.
“[During] the lame duck period with these must pass bills, if there’s any kind of tax language in there or any kind of economic language in there that ties in with this, we’re really hopeful it will get in this time around,” says Richard James Burgess, president and CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), which has long served as a key advocate for the legislation.
In the entertainment realm, music production is an outlier in terms of taxation; film, TV and live theater productions already enjoy a 100% first-year deduction. The HITS Act would simply apply the same standard to music, Burgess says, while also encouraging future music creation: “I think if anybody needs it, it’s musicians that need it really badly. It affects independent musicians and independent artists and independent labels probably more than anybody else because they have less bandwidth financially. The idea of getting $150,000 per project [that can be] written off against your taxes in the year that you incurred it, could really make a difference between being able to make another record next year or not.”
Burgess adds that the bill won’t just affect musicians and producers but trickle down to other parts of the industry and the greater economy. “Every artist that makes a record, that has a knock on effect to many, many other musicians and ancillary workers in the music industry,” he says. “Getting these kinds of tax benefits will make a difference across the board.”
While Burgess and Mason jr. were both relatively confident HITS could make it through the next Congress given the bill’s bipartisan support, they’ve clearly grown impatient on behalf of creators, many of whom lost income during the early stages of the pandemic. After more than two years of disappointment, Mason jr. puts it in stark terms: “Yes, it could get passed next year, but…I don’t think we should continue to have it laid off and cut out of bills. This is something that’s important for us coming out of COVID. We’ve seen this community suffer enough.”
You can read the full Nov. 15 letter below.
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McCarthy, and Leader McConnell: The 117th Congress has witnessed significant bipartisan and bicameral accomplishments that have benefitted American workers, families, and consumers, and levelled the playing field so some important domestic industries can grow. Prior to the conclusion of the 117th Congress, the American music community calls on you to support American music creation that is still reeling from the pandemic by passing into law the bipartisan and bicameral Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act (H.R. 1945/ S. 752).
The HITS Act is a low-cost and commonsense modification to existing U.S. tax law that will incentivize the production of new sound recordings by allowing qualified productions to deduct 100% of their costs upfront. With an annual deduction limit of $150,000, the bill is designed and tailored to specifically incentivize independent creators and labels to produce new music, sparking important creative investments in countless music small businesses across the country. This targeted approach makes the HITS Act a fiscally responsible investment in the American creative economy.
The HITS Act also brings much-needed parity to the tax code for all creative industries. Currently, under Sec. 181 of the Internal Revenue Code, qualified film, television, and live theatrical productions may elect to fully deduct new production costs in the year they are incurred. Music production, which occurs in every state and congressional district, deserves the same treatment. Instead of being able to fully deduct production expenses in the year they occur, independent recording artists must currently amortize production expenses for tax purposes over the full economic life of a sound recording. For small creators, this timing difference slows down their reinvestment in new projects that can fuel growth. The HITS Act harmonizes the tax code and ensures that all the major creative industries are treated similarly.
As you consider end-of-year legislation, the music community strongly urges you to pass the HITS Act. It represents exactly the type of bipartisan, bicameral, and non-controversial economic investment that Congress should be proud to support. Passage of H.R. 1945/S. 752 is a smart and simple step that will make a lasting difference for countless independent music creators and music small businesses.
On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of music makers and music businesses across the country, thank you for your consideration.
Signed,
American Association of Independent Music
Artists Rights Alliance
ASCAP
Black Music Action Coalition
Broadcast Music Inc.
Christian Music Trade Association
Digital Media Association
Future of Music
Global Music Rights
Gospel Music Association
Music Artists Coalition
Nashville Songwriters Association International
National Independent Talent Organization
National Independent Venue Association
National Music Publishers Association
Recording Academy
Recording Industry Association of America
SAG-AFTRA
SESAC
The Society of Composers and Lyricists
Songwriters Guild of America
Songwriters of North America
SoundExchange
CC Chairman Ron Wyden, Senate Finance Committee
Ranking Member Mike Crapo, Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Richard Neal, House Ways and Means Committee
Ranking Member Kevin Brady, House Ways and Means Committee