II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2625 

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

performance royalties to certain producers, mixers, and sound engineers 

of sound recordings, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 22, 2018 

Mr. GRASSLEY (for himself, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. HARRIS, and Mr. CORKER) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

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

payment of performance royalties to certain producers, 

mixers, and sound engineers of sound recordings, 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: 

6 ‘‘(5) LETTER OF DIRECTION.— 

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A nonprofit collective 

8 designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges to 

9 distribute receipts from the licensing of trans10 missions in accordance with subsection (f) shall 

11 adopt and reasonably implement a policy that 

12 provides, in circumstances determined by the 

13 collective to be appropriate, for acceptance of 

14 instructions from an artist payee identified 

15 under subparagraph (A) or (D) of paragraph 

16 (2) to distribute, to a producer, mixer, or sound 

17 engineer who was part of the creative process 

18 that created a sound recording, a portion of the 

19 payments to which the artist payee would other20 wise be entitled from the licensing of trans21 missions of the sound recording. In this section, 

22 such instructions shall be referred to as a ‘letter 

23 of direction’. 

24 ‘‘(B) ACCEPTANCE OF LETTER.—To the 

25 extent that the collective accepts a letter of di26 rection under subparagraph (A), the person enVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Mar 29, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2625.IS S2625

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1 titled to payment pursuant to the letter of di2 rection shall, during the period in which the let3 ter of direction is in effect and carried out by 

4 the collective, be treated for all purposes as the 

5 owner of the right to receive such payment and 

6 the artist payee providing the letter of direction 

7 to the collective shall be treated as having no 

8 interest in such payment. 

9 ‘‘(C) AUTHORITY OF COLLECTIVE.—This 

10 paragraph shall not be construed in such a 

11 manner so that the collective is not authorized 

12 to accept or act upon payment instructions in 

13 circumstances other than those to which this 

14 paragraph applies.’’. 

15 (b) ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS FOR RECORDINGS

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

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

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

19 ‘‘(6) SOUND RECORDINGS FIXED BEFORE NO20 VEMBER 1, 1995.— 

21 ‘‘(A) PAYMENT ABSENT LETTER OF DI22 RECTION.—A nonprofit collective designated by 

23 the Copyright Royalty Judges to distribute re24 ceipts from the licensing of transmissions in ac25 cordance with subsection (f) (in this paragraph 


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1 referred to as the ‘collective’) shall adopt and 

2 reasonably implement a policy that provides, in 

3 circumstances determined by the collective to be 

4 appropriate, for the deduction of 2 percent of 

5 the receipts that are collected from the licensing 

6 of transmissions of a sound recording fixed be7 fore November 1, 1995, but that are withdrawn 

8 from the amount otherwise payable under para9 graph (2)(D) to the recording artist or artists 

10 featured on the sound recording (or the persons 

11 conveying rights in the artists’ performance in 

12 the sound recording), and the distribution of 

13 such amount to one or more persons described 

14 in subparagraph (B), after deduction of costs 

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

16 if each of the following requirements is met: 

17 ‘‘(i) CERTIFICATION OF ATTEMPT TO

18 OBTAIN A LETTER OF DIRECTION.—The 

19 person described in subparagraph (B) who 

20 is to receive the distribution has certified 

21 to the collective, under penalty of perjury, 

22 that— 

23 ‘‘(I) for a period of at least 4 

24 months, that person made reasonable 

25 efforts to contact the artist payee for 


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1 such sound recording to request and 

2 obtain a letter of direction instructing 

3 the collective to pay to that person a 

4 portion of the royalties payable to the 

5 featured recording artist or artists; 

6 and 

7 ‘‘(II) during the period beginning 

8 on the date that person began the rea9 sonable efforts described in subclause 

10 (I) and ending on the date of that 

11 person’s certification to the collective, 

12 the artist payee did not affirm or 

13 deny in writing the request for a let14 ter of direction. 

15 ‘‘(ii) COLLECTIVE ATTEMPT TO CON16 TACT ARTIST.—After receipt of the certifi17 cation described in clause (i) and for a pe18 riod of at least 4 months before the collec19 tive’s first distribution to the person de20 scribed in subparagraph (B), the collective 

21 attempted, in a reasonable manner as de22 termined by the collective, to notify the 

23 artist payee of the certification made by 

24 the person described in subparagraph (B). 


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1 ‘‘(iii) NO OBJECTION RECEIVED.—The 

2 artist payee did not, as of the date that is 

3 10 business days before the date on which 

4 the first distribution is made, submit to 

5 the collective in writing an objection to the 

6 distribution. 

7 ‘‘(B) ELIGIBILITY FOR PAYMENT.—A per8 son shall be eligible for payment under subpara9 graph (A) if the person— 

10 ‘‘(i) is a producer, mixer, or sound en11 gineer of the sound recording; 

12 ‘‘(ii) has entered into a written con13 tract with a record company involved in 

14 the creation or lawful exploitation of the 

15 sound recording, or with the recording art16 ist or artists featured on the sound record17 ing (or the persons conveying rights in the 

18 artists’ performance in the sound record19 ing), under which the person seeking pay20 ment is entitled to participate in royalty 

21 payments that are based on the exploi22 tation of the sound recording and are pay23 able from royalties otherwise payable to 

24 the recording artist or artists featured on 

25 the sound recording (or the persons conVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Mar 29, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2625.IS S2625

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1 veying rights in the artists’ performance in 

2 the sound recording); 

3 ‘‘(iii) made a creative contribution to 

4 the creation of the sound recording; and 

5 ‘‘(iv) submits a written certification to 

6 the collective stating, under penalty of per7 jury, that the person meets the require8 ments in clauses (i) through (iii) and in9 cludes a true copy of the contract de10 scribed in clause (ii). 

11 ‘‘(C) MULTIPLE CERTIFICATIONS.—Sub12 ject to subparagraph (D), in a case in which 

13 more than 1 person described in subparagraph 

14 (B) has met the requirements for a distribution 

15 under subparagraph (A) with respect to a 

16 sound recording as of the date that is 10 busi17 ness days before the date on which a distribu18 tion is made, the collective shall divide the 2 

19 percent distribution equally among all such per20 sons. 

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

22 than 10 business days after the collective re23 ceives from the artist payee a written objection 

24 to a distribution made pursuant to subpara25 graph (A), the collective shall cease making any 


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1 further payment relating to such distribution. 

2 In any case in which the collective has made 

3 one or more distributions pursuant to subpara4 graph (A) to a person described in subpara5 graph (B) before the date that is 10 business 

6 days after the date on which the collective re7 ceives from the artist payee an objection to 

8 such distribution, the objection shall not affect 

9 that person’s entitlement to any distribution 

10 made before the collective ceases such distribu11 tion under this subparagraph. 

12 ‘‘(E) OWNERSHIP OF THE RIGHT TO RE13 CEIVE PAYMENTS.—To the extent that the col14 lective determines that a distribution will be 

15 made under subparagraph (A) to a person de16 scribed in subparagraph (B), such person shall, 

17 during the period covered by such distribution, 

18 be treated for all purposes as the owner of the 

19 right to receive such payments and the artist 

20 payee to which such payments would otherwise 

21 be payable shall be treated as having no inter22 est in such payments. 

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

24 paragraph, the term ‘artist payee’ means a per25 son, other than a person described in subparaVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:49 Mar 29, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2625.IS S2625

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1 graph (B), who owns the right to receive all or 

2 part of the receipts payable under paragraph 

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

4 case in which there are multiple artist payees 

5 with respect to a sound recording, an objection 

6 by 1 such payee shall apply only to that payee’s 

7 share of the receipts payable under paragraph 

8 (2)(D), and does not preclude payment under 

9 subparagraph (A) from the share of an artist 

10 payee that does not so object.’’. 

11 (c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

12 Section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, as amend13 ed by subsections (a) and (b), is further amended— 

14 (1) in paragraph (2), in the matter preceding 

15 subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘An agent des16 ignated’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided for in 

17 paragraph (6), a nonprofit collective designated by 

18 the Copyright Royalty Judges’’; 

19 (2) in paragraph (3), in the matter preceding 

20 subparagraph (A)— 

21 (A) by striking ‘‘nonprofit agent des22 ignated’’ and inserting ‘‘nonprofit collective des23 ignated by the Copyright Royalty Judges’’; 


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1 (B) by striking ‘‘another designated agent’’ 

2 and inserting ‘‘another designated nonprofit col3 lective’’; 

4 (C) by striking ‘‘such nonprofit agent’’ and 

5 inserting ‘‘such nonprofit collective’’; and 

6 (D) by striking ‘‘such agent’’ and inserting 

7 ‘‘such collective’’; and 

8 (3) in paragraph (4)— 

9 (A) by striking ‘‘designated agent’’ and in10 serting ‘‘nonprofit collective’’; and 

11 (B) by striking ‘‘agent’’ and inserting ‘‘col12 lective’’ each subsequent place it appears. 

13 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

14 This Act and the amendments made by Act shall take 

15 effect on the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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