Title: AMP Act
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Allocation for Music Producers Act or the AMP Act
This bill authorizes royalties for producers, mixers, and sound engineers who made a creative contribution to a sound recording. A nonprofit collective designated by the Copyright Royalty Board shall adopt procedures for such royalty payments for various digital transmissions of the recording.
The procedures shall allow the owner of the exclusive right to publicly perform the sound recording or the featured artist to instruct the collective to calculate and distribute the payments to the producers, mixers, and sound engineers. The instruction is called a "letter of direction."
For sound recordings fixed before November 1, 1995, the nonprofit collective shall adopt policies for collecting and distributing such royalties, even without a letter of direction. The collective and those seeking royalties shall attempt to contact the featured artist to get a letter of direction; however, if the artist does not object within a specified time frame, the collective may distribute the royalties.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2625 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Allocation for Music Producers Act'' 
or the ``AMP Act''.

SEC. 2. PAYMENT OF STATUTORY PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES.

    (a) Letter of Direction.--Section 114(g) of title 17, United States 
Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) Letter of direction.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A nonprofit collective 
                designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges to 
                distribute receipts from the licensing of transmissions 
                in accordance with subsection (f) shall adopt and 
                reasonably implement a policy that provides, in 
                circumstances determined by the collective to be 
                appropriate, for acceptance of instructions from an 
                artist payee identified under subparagraph (A) or (D) 
                of paragraph (2) to distribute, to a producer, mixer, 
                or sound engineer who was part of the creative process 
                that created a sound recording, a portion of the 
                payments to which the artist payee would otherwise be 
                entitled from the licensing of transmissions of the 
                sound recording. In this section, such instructions 
                shall be referred to as a `letter of direction'.
                    ``(B) Acceptance of letter.--To the extent that the 
                collective accepts a letter of direction under 
                subparagraph (A), the person entitled to payment 
                pursuant to the letter of direction shall, during the 
                period in which the letter of direction is in effect 
                and carried out by the collective, be treated for all 
                purposes as the owner of the right to receive such 
                payment and the artist payee providing the letter of 
                direction to the collective shall be treated as having 
                no interest in such payment.
                    ``(C) Authority of collective.--This paragraph 
                shall not be construed in such a manner so that the 
                collective is not authorized to accept or act upon 
                payment instructions in circumstances other than those 
                to which this paragraph applies.''.
    (b) Additional Provisions for Recordings Fixed Before November 1, 
1995.--Section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, as amended by 
subsection (a), is further amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) Sound recordings fixed before november 1, 1995.--
                    ``(A) Payment absent letter of direction.--A 
                nonprofit collective designated by the Copyright 
                Royalty Judges to distribute receipts from the 
                licensing of transmissions in accordance with 
                subsection (f) (in this paragraph referred to as the 
                `collective') shall adopt and reasonably implement a 
                policy that provides, in circumstances determined by 
                the collective to be appropriate, for the deduction of 
                2 percent of the receipts that are collected from the 
                licensing of transmissions of a sound recording fixed 
                before November 1, 1995, but that are withdrawn from 
                the amount otherwise payable under paragraph (2)(D) to 
                the recording artist or artists featured on the sound 
                recording (or the persons conveying rights in the 
                artists' performance in the sound recording), and the 
                distribution of such amount to one or more persons 
                described in subparagraph (B), after deduction of costs 
                described in paragraph (3) or (4), as applicable, if 
                each of the following requirements is met:
                            ``(i) Certification of attempt to obtain a 
                        letter of direction.--The person described in 
                        subparagraph (B) who is to receive the 
                        distribution has certified to the collective, 
                        under penalty of perjury, that--
                                    ``(I) for a period of at least 4 
                                months, that person made reasonable 
                                efforts to contact the artist payee for 
                                such sound recording to request and 
                                obtain a letter of direction 
                                instructing the collective to pay to 
                                that person a portion of the royalties 
                                payable to the featured recording 
                                artist or artists; and
                                    ``(II) during the period beginning 
                                on the date that person began the 
                                reasonable efforts described in 
                                subclause (I) and ending on the date of 
                                that person's certification to the 
                                collective, the artist payee did not 
                                affirm or deny in writing the request 
                                for a letter of direction.
                            ``(ii) Collective attempt to contact 
                        artist.--After receipt of the certification 
                        described in clause (i) and for a period of at 
                        least 4 months before the collective's first 
                        distribution to the person described in 
                        subparagraph (B), the collective attempted, in 
                        a reasonable manner as determined by the 
                        collective, to notify the artist payee of the 
                        certification made by the person described in 
                        subparagraph (B).
                            ``(iii) No objection received.--The artist 
                        payee did not, as of the date that is 10 
                        business days before the date on which the 
                        first distribution is made, submit to the 
                        collective in writing an objection to the 
                        distribution.
                    ``(B) Eligibility for payment.--A person shall be 
                eligible for payment under subparagraph (A) if the 
                person--
                            ``(i) is a producer, mixer, or sound 
                        engineer of the sound recording;
                            ``(ii) has entered into a written contract 
                        with a record company involved in the creation 
                        or lawful exploitation of the sound recording, 
                        or with the recording artist or artists 
                        featured on the sound recording (or the persons 
                        conveying rights in the artists' performance in 
                        the sound recording), under which the person 
                        seeking payment is entitled to participate in 
                        royalty payments that are based on the 
                        exploitation of the sound recording and are 
                        payable from royalties otherwise payable to the 
                        recording artist or artists featured on the 
                        sound recording (or the persons conveying 
                        rights in the artists' performance in the sound 
                        recording);
                            ``(iii) made a creative contribution to the 
                        creation of the sound recording; and
                            ``(iv) submits a written certification to 
                        the collective stating, under penalty of 
                        perjury, that the person meets the requirements 
                        in clauses (i) through (iii) and includes a 
                        true copy of the contract described in clause 
                        (ii).
                    ``(C) Multiple certifications.--Subject to 
                subparagraph (D), in a case in which more than 1 person 
                described in subparagraph (B) has met the requirements 
                for a distribution under subparagraph (A) with respect 
                to a sound recording as of the date that is 10 business 
                days before the date on which a distribution is made, 
                the collective shall divide the 2 percent distribution 
                equally among all such persons.
                    ``(D) Objection to payment.--Not later than 10 
                business days after the collective receives from the 
                artist payee a written objection to a distribution made 
                pursuant to subparagraph (A), the collective shall 
                cease making any further payment relating to such 
                distribution. In any case in which the collective has 
                made one or more distributions pursuant to subparagraph 
                (A) to a person described in subparagraph (B) before 
                the date that is 10 business days after the date on 
                which the collective receives from the artist payee an 
                objection to such distribution, the objection shall not 
                affect that person's entitlement to any distribution 
                made before the collective ceases such distribution 
                under this subparagraph.
                    ``(E) Ownership of the right to receive payments.--
                To the extent that the collective determines that a 
                distribution will be made under subparagraph (A) to a 
                person described in subparagraph (B), such person 
                shall, during the period covered by such distribution, 
                be treated for all purposes as the owner of the right 
                to receive such payments and the artist payee to which 
                such payments would otherwise be payable shall be 
                treated as having no interest in such payments.
                    ``(F) Artist payee defined.--In this paragraph, the 
                term `artist payee' means a person, other than a person 
                described in subparagraph (B), who owns the right to 
                receive all or part of the receipts payable under 
                paragraph (2)(D) with respect to a sound recording. In 
                a case in which there are multiple artist payees with 
                respect to a sound recording, an objection by 1 such 
                payee shall apply only to that payee's share of the 
                receipts payable under paragraph (2)(D), and does not 
                preclude payment under subparagraph (A) from the share 
                of an artist payee that does not so object.''.
    (c) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--Section 114(g) of title 
17, United States Code, as amended by subsections (a) and (b), is 
further amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), in the matter preceding subparagraph 
        (A), by striking ``An agent designated'' and inserting ``Except 
        as provided for in paragraph (6), a nonprofit collective 
        designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges'';
            (2) in paragraph (3), in the matter preceding subparagraph 
        (A)--
                    (A) by striking ``nonprofit agent designated'' and 
                inserting ``nonprofit collective designated by the 
                Copyright Royalty Judges'';
                    (B) by striking ``another designated agent'' and 
                inserting ``another designated nonprofit collective'';
                    (C) by striking ``such nonprofit agent'' and 
                inserting ``such nonprofit collective''; and
                    (D) by striking ``such agent'' and inserting ``such 
                collective''; and
            (3) in paragraph (4)--
                    (A) by striking ``designated agent'' and inserting 
                ``nonprofit collective''; and
                    (B) by striking ``agent'' and inserting 
                ``collective'' each subsequent place it appears.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act and the amendments made by Act shall take effect on the 
date of enactment of this Act.
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