Today the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Performance Rights Act, and the bill will go to the Senate to be discussed and voted upon at some later time.
The Performance Rights Act is a bill primarily backed by the 4 major record labels (EMI Capitol, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Chappell) and major artists. The bill closes an exception in federal Copyright law whereby radio stations only have to pay songwriter/publishing royalties for playing music on the air, but do not have to pay record labels that own the master recording.
