I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 881 

To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide for direct payment of 

statutory sound recording performance royalties to record producers, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 6, 2017 

Mr. CROWLEY (for himself, Mr. THOMAS J. ROONEY of Florida, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. 

COHEN, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. 

LIPINSKI, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. NADLER, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. SHERMAN, 

Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. TIPTON, Ms. WASSERMAN

SCHULTZ, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. ISSA, Mr. DEUTCH, 

Mr. CONYERS, Mr. MARINO, and Mr. COLLINS of Georgia) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide for direct 

payment of statutory sound recording performance royalties to record producers, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Allocation for Music 

5 Producers Act’’ or the ‘‘AMP Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF STATUTORY PERFORMANCE ROYAL2 TIES. 

3 (a) LETTER OF DIRECTION.—Section 114(g) of title 

4 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 

5 the following new paragraph: 

6 ‘‘(5) LETTER OF DIRECTION.—A collective des7 ignated by the Copyright Royalty Judges to dis8 tribute receipts from the licensing of transmissions 

9 in accordance with subsection (f) shall adopt and 

10 reasonably implement a policy that provides, in cir11 cumstances determined by the collective to be appro12 priate, for acceptance of instructions from a payee 

13 identified in subparagraph (A) or (D) of paragraph 

14 (2) to distribute a portion of the payments to which 

15 the payee otherwise would be entitled from the li16 censing of transmissions of a particular sound re17 cording to a producer, mixer, or sound engineer who 

18 was part of the creative process that created the 

19 sound recording (in this section, referred to as a ‘let20 ter of direction’). To the extent that the collective 

21 accepts a letter of direction, the person entitled to 

22 payment pursuant to such letter of direction shall, 

23 during the time such letter of direction is in effect 

24 and followed by the collective, be treated for all pur25 poses as the owner of the right to receive such pay26 ment. This paragraph shall not be interpreted to 


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1 imply that a collective cannot accept or act upon 

2 payment instructions in other circumstances.’’. 

3 (b) ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS FOR RECORDINGS

4 FIXED BEFORE NOVEMBER 1, 1995.—Section 114(g) of 

5 title 17, United States Code, as amended by subsection 

6 (a), is further amended by adding at the end the following 

7 new paragraph: 

8 ‘‘(6) SOUND RECORDINGS FIXED BEFORE NO9 VEMBER 1, 1995.— 

10 ‘‘(A) PAYMENT ABSENT LETTER OF DI11 RECTION.—A collective designated by the Copy12 right Royalty Judges to distribute receipts from 

13 the licensing of transmissions in accordance 

14 with subsection (f) shall adopt and reasonably 

15 implement a policy that provides, in cir16 cumstances determined by the collective to be 

17 appropriate, for deduction of 2 percent of the 

18 receipts from the licensing of transmissions of 

19 a sound recording fixed before November 1, 

20 1995, from receipts otherwise payable to the re21 cording artist or artists featured on such sound 

22 recording (or the persons conveying rights in 

23 the artists’ performance in the sound record24 ings) pursuant to paragraph (2)(D) (which 

25 leaves the recording artist or artists featured on 


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1 such sound recording (or the persons conveying 

2 rights in the artists’ performance in the sound 

3 recordings) 43 percent of the total receipts paid 

4 pursuant to paragraph (2)) and distribution of 

5 such amount to one or more persons described 

6 in subparagraph (B), after deduction of costs as 

7 described in paragraph (3) or (4), as applicable, 

8 if each of the following requirements is met: 

9 ‘‘(i) CERTIFICATION OF ATTEMPT TO

10 OBTAIN A LETTER OF DIRECTION.—A per11 son described in subparagraph (B) cer12 tified to the collective, under penalty of 

13 perjury, that— 

14 ‘‘(I) for a period of at least 4 

15 months, that person made reasonable 

16 efforts to contact the artist payee for 

17 such sound recording to request and 

18 obtain a letter of direction instructing 

19 the collective to pay a portion of the 

20 royalties from the featured recording 

21 artist or artists to that person; and 

22 ‘‘(II) during the period beginning 

23 on the date that person began the rea24 sonable efforts described in subclause 

25 (I) and ending on date of that perVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:28 Feb 13, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H881.IH H881

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1 son’s certification to the collective, the 

2 artist payee did not definitively affirm 

3 or deny the request for a letter of di4 rection. 

5 ‘‘(ii) COLLECTIVE ATTEMPT TO CON6 TACT ARTIST.—After receipt of the certifi7 cation described in clause (i) and for a pe8 riod of at least 4 months before the collec9 tive’s first distribution to the person de10 scribed in subparagraph (B), the collective 

11 attempted to notify the artist payee of the 

12 certification made by the person described 

13 in subparagraph (B) in a manner reason14 ably determined by the collective. 

15 ‘‘(iii) NO OBJECTION RECEIVED.—An 

16 objection to the distribution has not been 

17 submitted to the collective by the artist 

18 payee as of the date that is 10 business 

19 days before the date on which the first dis20 tribution is made. 

21 ‘‘(B) ELIGIBILITY FOR PAYMENT.—A per22 son shall be eligible for payment under subpara23 graph (A) if such person— 

24 ‘‘(i) is a producer, mixer, or sound en25 gineer of the relevant sound recording; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) has entered into a written con2 tract with a record company involved in 

3 the creation or lawful exploitation of the 

4 relevant sound recording, or with the re5 cording artist or artists featured on such 

6 sound recording (or the persons conveying 

7 rights in the artists’ performance in the 

8 sound recordings), pursuant to which such 

9 person is entitled to participate in royalty 

10 payments based on exploitation of the rel11 evant sound recording that are payable 

12 from royalties otherwise payable to the re13 cording artist or artists featured on such 

14 sound recording (or the persons conveying 

15 rights in the artists’ performance in the 

16 sound recordings); 

17 ‘‘(iii) made a contribution, of a nature 

18 subject to copyright protection under sec19 tion 102, to the creation of the relevant 

20 sound recording; and 

21 ‘‘(iv) submits a written certification to 

22 the collective stating, under penalty of per23 jury, that such person meets the require24 ments in clauses (i) through (iii) and inVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:03 Feb 14, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H881.IH H881

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1 cludes a true copy of the contract de2 scribed in clause (ii). 

3 ‘‘(C) MULTIPLE CERTIFICATIONS.—Sub4 ject to subparagraph (D), in a case in which 

5 more than one person described in subpara6 graph (B) has met the requirements for a dis7 tribution pursuant to subparagraph (A) with re8 spect to a sound recording as of the date that 

9 is 10 business days before the date on which a 

10 distribution is made, the collective shall divide 

11 the 2 percent distribution equally among all 

12 such persons. 

13 ‘‘(D) OBJECTION TO PAYMENT.—Not later 

14 than 10 days after the collective receives from 

15 the artist payee a written objection to a dis16 tribution made pursuant to subparagraph (A), 

17 the collective shall cease making any further 

18 payment related to such distribution. In any 

19 case in which the collective has made one or 

20 more distributions pursuant to subparagraph 

21 (A) to a person described in subparagraph (B) 

22 before the date that is 10 business days after 

23 the date on which the collective receives an ob24 jection by the artist payee to such distribution, 

25 the objection shall not affect that person’s entiVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:28 Feb 13, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H881.IH H881

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1 tlement to any distribution made before the col2 lective ceases such distribution pursuant to this 

3 subparagraph. 

4 ‘‘(E) OWNERSHIP OF THE RIGHT TO RE5 CEIVE PAYMENTS.—To the extent that the col6 lective determines that a distribution will be 

7 made pursuant to subparagraph (A) to a person 

8 described in subparagraph (B), such person 

9 shall during the period of such distribution be 

10 treated for all purposes as the owner of the 

11 right to receive such payments. 

12 ‘‘(F) ARTIST PAYEE DEFINED.—In this 

13 paragraph, the term ‘artist payee’ means a per14 son, other than a person described in subpara15 graph (B), who owns the right to receive all or 

16 part of the receipts payable under paragraph 

17 (2)(D) with respect to a sound recording. In a 

18 case in which there are multiple artist payees 

19 with respect to a sound recording, an objection 

20 by one such payee shall apply only to that pay21 ee’s share of the receipts payable under para22 graph (2)(D), and does not preclude payment 

23 under subparagraph (A) from the share of an 

24 artist payee that does not object.’’. 


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1 (c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

2 Section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, as amend3 ed by subsections (a) and (b), is further amended— 

4 (1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘An agent 

5 designated’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided for in 

6 paragraph (6), a collective designated by the Copy7 right Royalty Judges’’; 

8 (2) in paragraph (3)— 

9 (A) by striking ‘‘agent designated’’ and in10 serting ‘‘collective designated by the Copyright 

11 Royalty Judges’’; and 

12 (B) by striking ‘‘agent’’ and inserting ‘‘col13 lective’’, each place it appears; and 

14 (3) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘agent’’ and 

15 inserting ‘‘collective’’, each place it appears. 

Æ 


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