Protect Working Musicians Act

October 1, 2026

Marta Bradley  -  AFM International Executive Board Member and Secretary-Treasurer of Local 40-543 (Baltimore, MD)

When it comes to negotiating with billion-dollar streaming and technology companies that have enormous legal, financial, and technological resources, independent musicians have been out of luck. The imbalance is not one of talent; it is one of leverage.

Musicians are forced to accept unreasonable terms or walk away. Musicians may receive only fractions of a cent in royalties attributable to an individual stream, while some streaming platforms impose minimum thresholds before tracks are eligible to generate recorded royalty payments. Artificial intelligence companies have also faced allegations of using and replicating musicians’ likenesses, voices, and styles without their consent.

Antitrust laws were put into place more than a century ago with the goal of protecting competition and creating a fair marketplace. Paradoxically, those same laws can create a massive imbalance of power in today’s music industry. The Clayton Act of 1914, designed to curb anticompetitive practices, recognized that “the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.”

Yet independent musicians, labels, and writers—who are treated as individual businesses under antitrust law—can be prevented from collectively negotiating with the enormous technology companies that dominate the market. That protection for human labor should apply to working musicians. To address this paradox, Representative Deborah Ross (D-NC) introduced H.R. 8994, the Protect Working Musicians Act (PWMA), which offers a commonsense, free-market solution.

PWMA allows independent musicians, songwriters, and indie labels to band together to negotiate fair royalty payouts and licensing terms without violating antitrust laws. It addresses dominant streaming services as well as generative AI companies that train their models using copyrighted music without permission or market-value compensation.

This legislation offers a bipartisan, free-market approach because it does not establish a collective bargaining agreement; instead, it reflects the spirit of antitrust law by allowing the creators of the very product from which these technology giants reap profits to negotiate collectively. Without relying on litigation or regulation, the bill would help restore that intended balance, giving creators a meaningful voice in decisions about compensation, consent, transparency, and how their music and performances are used in AI.

On August 6, the AFM participated in “Our Seat at the Table,” a virtual panel presented by a coalition of singers, songwriters, and music industry representatives to raise awareness about H.R. 8994. Ross echoed a statement she made upon introduction of the bill: “Working musicians and small independent labels face urgent challenges to their livelihoods posed by the market power of streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Now, as the use of AI in music production explodes, it’s more urgent than ever to ensure artists’ creations aren’t being used without fair licenses and pay. The Protect Working Musicians Act will level the playing field for small, independent music creators, and empower these talented musicians to demand fair compensation.”

I participated along with Tift Merritt (singer-songwriter), Mariah Czap (Exceleration Music), Erin McAnally (Songwriters of North America/SONA), Wendy Laister (Magus Entertainment), and moderators Jen Jacobsen (Artists Rights Alliance/ARA) and Lisa Hresko (American Association of Independent Music/A2IM).

The bill can be found at www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8994.

Please call your representative to ask for their support. Technology companies deserve to innovate, but musicians deserve the opportunity to negotiate. Those two ideas can, and should, coexist.

As I begin my first term on the AFM International Executive Board, I look forward to advocating for legislation like the Protect Working Musicians Act and ensuring that the voices of working musicians are heard in the halls of government. The music industry will continue to change, but one principle must remain constant: working musicians deserve a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their work, their livelihoods, their likeness, and their future.

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