The Music Modernization Act

The Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (Music Modernization Act) is the most significant piece of copyright legislation in decades and updates our current laws to reflect modern consumer preferences and technological developments in the music marketplace. The law is organized into three key titles, outlined below: Title I—Musical Works Modernization Act; Title II—Classics Protection and Access Act; and Title III—Allocation for Music Producers Act. The Copyright Office has been active in executing its duties under the MMA, including:

On July 8, 2019, the U.S. Copyright Office named Mechanical Licensing Collective, Inc. as the designated Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) under Title I of the MMA.

On September 24, 2019, the Office issued a notice of inquiry regarding implementation regulations for the new blanket section 115 “mechanical” license. Following this notice, on April 22, 2020 the Office published multiple notices of proposed rulemaking and on July 17, 2020 published an additional notice of proposed rulemaking, each focusing on one or more of the regulatory categories discussed in the initial notice.

On December 6, 2019, the Office held an all-day educational symposium to kick off a public study to determine the best practices that the MLC may implement to effectively identify copyright owners and unclaimed royalties of musical works while encouraging copyright owners to claim royalties and ultimately reduce the occurrence of unclaimed royalties, as directed by the MMA.