Jamaal Bowman

A new bill designed to increase streaming payouts for artists was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday (Mar. 6). Titled the Living Wage for Musicians Act, the legislation proposes the establishment of a new royalty fund that would pay artists directly, bypassing labels altogether.
Introduced by Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), the bill aims to boost artists’ streaming royalty from fractions of a penny up to one penny per stream by way of the new fund. It proposes to fund the additional royalty payments, in part, by mandating the addition of a fee to every streaming subscription equal to 50% of the subscription price — an amount that would be set anywhere between $4 and $10. The bill would also establish a royalty cap for tracks that generate at least 1 million streams per month, with royalties generated by the tracks beyond that number to be divided among all artists.

Notably, the bill would not affect the existing payout model but rather establish a separate fund on top of what artists already receive under the current system.

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“It’s only right that the people who create the music we love get their fair share, so that they can thrive, not just survive,” said Tlaib, who has long advocated for higher royalty payments to artists on streaming services, in a statement.

Damon Krukowski, a member of the band Damon & Naomi (and formerly Galaxie 500) and an organizer for the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), added in a statement, “There is a lot of talk in the industry about how to ‘fix’ streaming — but the streaming platforms and major labels have already had their say for more than a decade, and they have failed musicians.”

The UMAW partnered with the representatives in drafting the act.

It’s unlikely streaming services and top labels will support all of the changes proposed by the bill. Daniel Ek, Spotify’s co-founder/CEO, expressed reluctance for years to raise subscription prices, although they did finally increase in 2023, rising from $9.99 to $10.99. Also likely to be unpopular with streaming services: a mandate that 10% of all of their non-subscription revenue, including from advertising, goes to the fund as a way to further increase payments to recording artists.

Labels and some artists also seem likely to oppose the cap in which the most popular artists share portions of their streaming revenue with the rest of the streaming pool. And labels — which have lobbying power through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — will also likely challenge the provision that would see artists paid directly from the fund rather than through the labels themselves.

An RIAA representative declined to comment on the bill.