NITO Urges Senate Support for the American Music Fairness Act

The National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) is urging Senate support for the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA), which would compel AM/FM radio stations to begin coughing up recorded performance royalties.

NITO reached out with an in-depth release touting the bipartisan bill, which was reintroduced earlier in 2025 and recently received a congressional hearing. Said release coincided with a letter (diving into, of course, why NITO believes the years-old legislation should become law) to Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).

“AM/FM radio is now the only major music delivery platform in the United States that still refuses to pay performers for their work,” NITO and over 60 member companies wrote to the senators, who chair and rank on the Judiciary and IP Committees.

“Importantly, AMFA is carefully designed to protect small and community broadcasters, allowing them to play unlimited music for $1.37 a day, ensuring that local radio can continue to thrive while finally acknowledging the work of the performers whose recordings help attract listeners,” NITO proceeded.

Time will reveal whether this latest push brings about the desired result for NITO and many others in the music world.

By now, most are aware of the entity’s central point, which various organizations, companies, and artists have long emphasized. In short, terrestrial radio stations pay only for the use of underlying compositions, not recordings, in the States.

The practice can be traced to traditional radio’s hitmaking heyday, when stations, far from paying to play music, were themselves often compensated to plug and popularize tracks.

Needless to say, from the emergence of the internet to the rise of streaming, a whole lot – but not Big Radio’s preference for the present royalties arrangement – has changed since then.

And with related broadcaster lobbying efforts centering on leaving the current framework in place, lawmakers have thus far been content not to take any action at all.

Technically, they have taken some action: A rival measure, the Local Radio Freedom Act, simply opposes establishing “any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge” on local radio. Having benefited from an NAB victory lap last month following a February reintroduction, it once again has majority support (this time via a long list of co-sponsors) in the House.

“Over 200 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signaled strong support for local radio stations by cosponsoring the Local Radio Freedom Act,” the National Association of Broadcasters declared in early November.

Consequently, the American Music Fairness Act is still facing an uphill battle in Congress, where at least one undiscerning lawmaker previously voted for it as well as the Local Radio Freedom Act.

That might suggest a long-term path to passage for the AMFA, which would certainly benefit from momentum in the Senate. In its letter, NITO framed the bill as indirectly beneficial for independent managers, agents, and others.

“This issue has been before Congress many times and every U.S. President since 1977 has supported establishing a performance right for sound recordings on terrestrial radio,” NITO summed up.

“Let this Congress be the one that finally corrects this long-overdue error by passing the American Music Fairness Act (S.326). The livelihoods of countless American musicians, and the future of our cultural heritage, depend on it,” the entity concluded.