H. R. 1551—46 
through which sound recordings of musical works are digitally 
transmitted to members of the public. 
‘‘(30) SHARE.—The term ‘share’, as applied to a musical 
work, means a fractional ownership interest in such work. 
‘‘(31) SIGNIFICANT
NONBLANKET
LICENSEE.—The term 
‘significant nonblanket licensee’— 
‘‘(A) means an entity, including a group of entities 
under common ownership or control that, acting under 
the authority of one or more voluntary licenses or indi-
vidual download licenses, offers a service engaged in cov-
ered activities, and such entity or group of entities— 
‘‘(i) is not currently operating under a blanket 
license and is not obligated to provide reports of usage 
reflecting covered activities under subsection (d)(4)(A); 
‘‘(ii) has a direct contractual, subscription, or other 
economic relationship with end users of the service 
or, if no such relationship with end users exists, exer-
cises direct control over the provision of the service 
to end users; and 
‘‘(iii) either— 
‘‘(I) on any day in a calendar month, makes 
more than 5,000 different sound recordings of 
musical works available through such service; or 
‘‘(II) derives revenue or other consideration 
in connection with such covered activities greater 
than $50,000 in a calendar month, or total revenue 
or other consideration greater than $500,000 
during the preceding 12 calendar months; and 
‘‘(B) does not include— 
‘‘(i) an entity whose covered activity consists solely 
of free-to-the-user streams of segments of sound 
recordings of musical works that do not exceed 90 
seconds in length, are offered only to facilitate a 
licensed use of musical works that is not a covered 
activity, and have no revenue directly attributable to 
such streams constituting the covered activity; or 
‘‘(ii) a ‘public broadcasting entity’ as defined in 
section 118(f). 
‘‘(32) SONGWRITER.—The term ‘songwriter’ means the 
author of all or part of a musical work, including a composer 
or lyricist. 
‘‘(33) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means each State of the 
United States, the District of Columbia, and each territory 
or possession of the United States. 
‘‘(34) 
UNCLAIMED
ACCRUED
ROYALTIES.—The 
term 
‘unclaimed accrued royalties’ means accrued royalties eligible 
for distribution under subsection (d)(3)(J). 
‘‘(35) UNMATCHED.—The term ‘unmatched’, as applied to 
a musical work (or share thereof), means that the copyright 
owner of such work (or share thereof) has not been identified 
or located. 
‘‘(36) VOLUNTARY LICENSE.—The term ‘voluntary license’ 
means a license for use of a musical work (or share thereof) 
other than a compulsory license obtained under this section.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL
AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS
TO SECTION 
801.—Section 801(b) of title 17, United States Code, is amended— 
(1) by redesignating paragraph (8) as paragraph (9); and
H. R. 1551—47 
(2) by inserting after paragraph (7) the following: 
‘‘(8) To determine the administrative assessment to be paid 
by digital music providers under section 115(d). The provisions 
of section 115(d) shall apply to the conduct of proceedings 
by the Copyright Royalty Judges under section 115(d) and 
not the procedures described in this section, or section 803, 
804, or 805.’’. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE OF AMENDED RATE SETTING STANDARD.— 
The amendments made by subsection (a)(3) and section 103(g)(2) 
shall apply to any proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Judges 
that is commenced on or after the date of the enactment of this 
Act. 
(d) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS TO TITLE 37, 
PART 385 OF THE CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS.—Not later than 
270 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Copyright 
Royalty Judges shall amend the regulations for section 115 of 
title 17, United States Code, in part 385 of title 37, Code of Federal 
Regulations, to conform the definitions used in such part to the 
definitions of the same terms described in section 115(e) of title 
17, United States Code, as added by subsection (a). In so doing, 
the Copyright Royalty Judges shall make adjustments to the lan-
guage of the regulations as necessary to achieve the same purpose 
and effect as the original regulations with respect to the rates 
and terms previously adopted by the Copyright Royalty Judges. 
(e) COPYRIGHT OFFICE ACTIVITIES.—The Register of Copyrights 
shall engage in public outreach and educational activities— 
(1) regarding the amendments made by subsection (a) to 
section 115 of title 17, United States Code, including the respon-
sibilities of the mechanical licensing collective designated under 
those amendments; 
(2) which shall include educating songwriters and other 
interested parties with respect to the process established under 
section 115(d)(3)(C)(i)(V) of title 17, United States Code, as 
added by subsection (a), by which— 
(A) a copyright owner may claim ownership of musical 
works (and shares of such works); and 
(B) royalties for works for which the owner is not 
identified or located shall be equitably distributed to known 
copyright owners; and 
(3) which the Register shall make available online. 
(f) UNCLAIMED ROYALTIES STUDY
AND RECOMMENDATIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the date 
on which the Register of Copyrights initially designates the 
mechanical licensing collective under section 115(d)(3)(B)(i) of 
title 17, United States Code, as added by subsection (a)(4), 
the Register, in consultation with the Comptroller General of 
the United States, and after soliciting and reviewing comments 
and relevant information from music industry participants and 
other interested parties, shall submit to the Committee on 
the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary 
of the House of Representatives a report that recommends 
best practices that the collective may implement in order to— 
(A) identify and locate musical work copyright owners 
with unclaimed accrued royalties held by the collective; 
(B) encourage musical work copyright owners to claim 
the royalties of those owners; and 
(C) reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties.
H. R. 1551—48 
(2) CONSIDERATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS.—The mechan-
ical licensing collective shall carefully consider, and give 
substantial weight to, the recommendations submitted by the 
Register of Copyrights under paragraph (1) when establishing 
the procedures of the collective with respect to the— 
(A) identification and location of musical work copy-
right owners; and 
(B) distribution of unclaimed royalties. 
SEC. 103. AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 114. 
(a) UNIFORM RATE STANDARD.—Section 114(f) of title 17, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) by striking paragraphs (1) and (2) and inserting the 
following: 
‘‘(1)(A) Proceedings under chapter 8 shall determine reason-
able rates and terms of royalty payments for transmissions 
subject to statutory licensing under subsection (d)(2) during 
the 5-year period beginning on January 1 of the second year 
following the year in which the proceedings are to be com-
menced pursuant to subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 804(b)(3), 
as the case may be, or such other period as the parties may 
agree. The parties to each proceeding shall bear their own 
costs. 
‘‘(B) The schedule of reasonable rates and terms determined 
by the Copyright Royalty Judges shall, subject to paragraph 
(2), be binding on all copyright owners of sound recordings 
and entities performing sound recordings affected by this para-
graph during the 5-year period specified in subparagraph (A), 
or such other period as the parties may agree. Such rates 
and terms shall distinguish among the different types of serv-
ices then in operation and shall include a minimum fee for 
each such type of service, such differences to be based on 
criteria including the quantity and nature of the use of sound 
recordings and the degree to which use of the service may 
substitute for or may promote the purchase of phonorecords 
by consumers. The Copyright Royalty Judges shall establish 
rates and terms that most clearly represent the rates and 
terms that would have been negotiated in the marketplace 
between a willing buyer and a willing seller. In determining 
such rates and terms, the Copyright Royalty Judges— 
‘‘(i) shall base their decision on economic, competitive, 
and programming information presented by the parties, 
including— 
‘‘(I) whether use of the service may substitute for 
or may promote the sales of phonorecords or otherwise 
may interfere with or may enhance the sound recording 
copyright owner’s other streams of revenue from the 
copyright owner’s sound recordings; and 
‘‘(II) the relative roles of the copyright owner and 
the transmitting entity in the copyrighted work and 
the service made available to the public with respect 
to relative creative contribution, technological contribu-
tion, capital investment, cost, and risk; and 
‘‘(ii) may consider the rates and terms for comparable 
types of audio transmission services and comparable cir-
cumstances under voluntary license agreements.
H. R. 1551—49 
‘‘(C) The procedures under subparagraphs (A) and (B) shall 
also be initiated pursuant to a petition filed by any sound 
recording copyright owner or any transmitting entity indicating 
that a new type of service on which sound recordings are 
performed is or is about to become operational, for the purpose 
of determining reasonable terms and rates of royalty payments 
with respect to such new type of service for the period beginning 
with the inception of such new type of service and ending 
on the date on which the royalty rates and terms for eligible 
nonsubscription services and new subscription services, or pre-
existing subscription services and preexisting satellite digital 
audio radio services, as the case may be, most recently deter-
mined under subparagraph (A) or (B) and chapter 8 expire, 
or such other period as the parties may agree.’’; and 
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) as para-
graphs (2), (3), and (4), respectively. 
(b) REPEAL.—Subsection (i) of section 114 of title 17, United 
States Code, is repealed. 
(c) USE IN MUSICAL WORK PROCEEDINGS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—License fees payable for the public 
performance of sound recordings under section 106(6) of title 
17, United States Code, shall not be taken into account in 
any administrative, judicial, or other governmental proceeding 
to set or adjust the royalties payable to musical work copyright 
owners for the public performance of their works except in 
such a proceeding to set or adjust royalties for the public 
performance of musical works by means of a digital audio 
transmission other than a transmission by a broadcaster, and 
may be taken into account only with respect to such digital 
audio transmission. 
(2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
(A) TRANSMISSION
BY
A
BROADCASTER.—The term 
‘‘transmission by a broadcaster’’ means a nonsubscription 
digital transmission made by a terrestrial broadcast station 
on its own behalf, or on the behalf of a terrestrial broadcast 
station under common ownership or control, that is not 
part of an interactive service or a music-intensive service 
comprising the transmission of sound recordings cus-
tomized for or customizable by recipients or service users. 
(B) TERRESTRIAL
BROADCAST
STATION.—The term 
‘‘terrestrial broadcast station’’ means a terrestrial, over- 
the-air radio or television broadcast station, including an 
FM translator (as defined in section 74.1201 of title 47, 
Code of Federal Regulations, and licensed as such by the 
Federal Communications Commission) whose primary busi-
ness activities are comprised of, and whose revenues are 
generated through, terrestrial, over-the-air broadcast trans-
missions, or the simultaneous or substantially-simulta-
neous digital retransmission by the terrestrial, over-the- 
air broadcast station of its over-the-air broadcast trans-
missions. 
(d) RULE
OF CONSTRUCTION.—Subsection (c)(2) shall not be 
given effect in interpreting provisions of title 17, United States 
Code. 
(e) USE IN SOUND RECORDING PROCEEDINGS.—The repeal of 
section 114(i) of title 17, United States Code, by subsection (b) 
shall not be taken into account in any proceeding to set or adjust