Radio stations face new music royalty fees under copyright expansion bill

What it does

This bill extends federal copyright protections for sound recordings to terrestrial radio broadcasts for the first time, requiring radio stations to pay royalties to record labels and artists when they play music. It creates a tiered fee structure ($10–$500 annually) for small broadcasters based on revenue, and mandates that royalty rates be set by Copyright Royalty Judges starting in 2025, with proceedings repeated every five years. The bill explicitly protects songwriters' existing royalties and directs judges to consider radio's promotional value when setting rates.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is extending sound-recording copyright protections to a previously exempt medium (terrestrial radio), a significant copyright expansion. However, it simultaneously creates statutory fee caps and exemptions for small and public broadcasters, making it a hybrid of expansion and regulatory relief rather than pure deregulation or pure enforcement.

What the text implies

• The bill's promotional-value language (§7) may create litigation risk: radio stations could argue that airplay constitutes sufficient 'promotion' to justify lower rates, leading to prolonged Copyright Royalty Judge proceedings and rate-setting uncertainty.
• Small-broadcaster fee caps ($10–$500/year) are far below market rates for digital services; this creates a two-tier system where terrestrial radio pays a fraction of what streaming services pay, potentially incentivizing format shifts and reducing terrestrial radio's competitive position.

The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.

Who stands to gain

sound recording copyright owners (major record labels); featured and nonfeatured recording artists; independent record labels