Songwriter Equity Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back on the floor of the House. I am thrilled tonight to be surrounded with my friends and colleagues, and to be part on championing a call that is close to my heart, and should be for every Member of Congress. Because we are dealing with songs and songwriters and the special place that they have in American life, and really in the world.

The amazing thing is how the songs that come from the hearts of many from Nashville, where I have friends tonight, Rob and Lance and Lee Thomas, and the rest, they are watching others across the country are songwriters, who are very interested in what goes on here. Because, amazingly enough, here in Washington, DC, as the tentacles spread out, you come to find out that, even in songwriting, Washington has its grip on it.

I just want to point out for those who may be watching--now, this is a quote. This doesn't come from me. It comes from Kevin Kadish. You may know Kevin. If you like to listen to a little bit of music, he happened to have a little, small hit with Meghan Trainor, ``All About That Base,'' and Miley Cyrus' ``Two More Lonely People.'' He made a comment. He said that no one is trying to put Pandora or Spotify out of business. We just want a fair market value for our blood, sweat, and tears.

This is something that, for me, is very special because, over the next 30 minutes, you are going to hear about a million and a half songwriters, publishers, and composers across the Nation and how the current music licensing regime is causing them to be paid well below market value.

Now, as a conservative, one thing I believe is that the government has a role--it has a limited constitutional role--especially when it comes to the ultimate of the small businesses: the entrepreneurs. Those are some of our songwriters and composers. The Federal Government should not have its thumb on the scale, and that is what we are seeing tonight. So you are going to hear about that as we go along. The government's heavy hand in this industry needs to go.

We have got another issue here of the Songwriter Equity Act. We have got some folks I want to have talk tonight; but I want to introduce this, and they are all cosponsors of this act. It is H.R. 1283.

When I start talking about this tonight, for those watching, there are three ways songwriters get paid. I am going to make it very simple. There are three ways they get paid: Two of which the government has its thumb on and--guess what?--one of which they don't. Does anybody want to take a guess? Raise your hand. Not my colleagues, you know this. Will anyone raise his hand really quickly? Which way is the fairest way? It is when they are able to negotiate on their own. That is the sync license.

So, with the Songwriter Equity Act, it removes the antiquated evidentiary standard; it adopts a fair rate standard for reproduction, or mechanical licenses. Why? To ensure that songwriters, composers, and publishers are appropriately compensated for the use of their intellectual property.

Before I get ready to turn it over to some of my friends who are here with me tonight and who are part of cosponsoring this, the issue before us is: We all can point back to that time. It is a song on the radio. This is the time of year, this holiday season. Or it may be a long drive in the summer. Or it may be sitting outside, but there is that song and that special someone. That song comes on, and you hear it, and the performer is performing it wonderfully. It may have been the performer, or it may have been something else. But a lot of times, there is someone who is sitting in a room or is sitting somewhere, and what comes out of their hand and onto a piece of paper has come out of their heart and their mind and their mouth. It has affected our hearts and our minds, and it has affected us even to this day.

You can think about those songs. That is what makes songwriters special. That is what makes this cause something that we need to fight for.

You have heard them on the radio. Our radio stations have played these songs. For a State trooper's kid, who grew up in northeast Georgia, to listen to the radio, that was my escape. Between that and books, I traveled the world and always longed to see it, and those songwriters took me there. This is why we are fighting today. It is because we believe that what these artists have is intellectual property. What comes out of the their minds, what comes out and is expressed on paper and is then translated many times through artists' singing across the world, is worth protecting. It is intellectual property. It is as much intellectual property as is this property of my phone in my hand, and we have got to understand that.

Tonight, I have some friends with me. We will have a lot of time to talk about this. I want to start off up north a little bit. My friend from North Dakota, Kevin Cramer, is here. We have talked about this issue, and I am glad he has joined me here tonight.

One of the things that we talked about, Kevin, as you came on the floor, you said, You know, it is just about fairness. I think that is a great way to put it. It is just about fairness. So I am happy to yield to the gentleman to talk about this.

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, Representative Fleischmann just made a great point. I don't hear a song that comes out on a platform--and I think that one of the things we forget here is that this is not a discussion of how we get music, per se, and how innovators have decided that--you know, through wonderful things--Pandora Spotify, Apple Music, traditional radio, and the Internet--there are so many platforms, and those are wonderful. What we don't want to forget is the very system that has allowed them to begin is something that is taking away from the heart of the very songwriter issue.

One of the reasons that we were talking about this is that music is the most regulated sector. Seventy-five percent of a songwriter's income is regulated, some of which go back, the mechanical right, to 1909. They are still governed by player pianos. That is something that has got to change, and I think this is where we are at.

What Representative Fleischmann brings is such a wonderful experience in what he has heard, and I appreciate him being a part of this. This highlights, again, that specialness.

Whatever song may come out on a platform, I don't hear it come out saying it is Republican, Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, or whatever. It just comes out as a song that comes from the heart and mind of someone that touches the soul of others, and I think that is a wonderful thing to be a part of.

Sometimes you make friends and you come together, and the great State of Georgia and the Big Apple come together. I was just recently there. It is amazing how you find commonality in music and how you find commonality in songs and songwriters.

I am just very honored to have as my lead sponsor on the Songwriter Equity Act Representative Hakeem Jeffries from New York. We share some background, but we also share a love of music.

HAKEEM, I think--as we talk about this, there is a passion that shows this is not a regional issue and it is not a genre issue. It is a fairness issue. I think that is something we can come around and reach across the aisle and say let's look and work at how we best can do this.

Mr. Speaker, I am so glad to have Representative Jeffries as a part of this. He is a wonderful spokesman to be a part of fairness and what he does for his district, especially with the songwriting community in New York, with Atlanta, with LA, with Nashville, and all over. This has been something that has brought us all together.

I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries).

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Jeffries. I think one thing you and I both would point out in this is this is not one against another. It is not playing off. It is just being fair for all involved.

You have artists who enjoy a very good living based on songs that were written by others. In this process and this ecosystem, we are not minding the platform. We are just saying to be fair in the use of it.

We want to see every opportunity for every songwriter to be a part, but also be equally compensated, fairly compensated, not more, not less, just fairly compensated.

I think that is the one thing I want to make sure that our songwriters and composers out there understand, that they are all in this together. They have advocated and continue to advocate, but know that we all come together. We are the beneficiaries of their genius. I think that is the thing. I appreciate you so much.

Tonight, as we are coming sort of to an end, many people have asked me: DOUG, how did you get involved in this? How did a kid from north Georgia get involved with songwriters?

Well, the amazing thing is Georgia has almost 50,000 songwriters registered with many--BMI is one of the groups that is registered. ASCAP's Paul Williams is a dear friend.

Of course, he has a real connection to Georgia, for all the folks who are watching, Smokey and the Bandit. Paul has connections to so many things in songwriting. This is a multimillion-dollar business, and these are all small entrepreneurs.

I wanted to highlight that, for me, it came personal. It comes from listening to my mother-in-law and her husband as they sing and they just go back to the old Shape note singing books of the churches in northeast Georgia.

It goes to when my beautiful bride, Lisa, and I first started dating. One of the first things we did was went to a hootenanny, and this is where everybody just brought music. They brought their instruments, they brought everything, and they just began to sing. It came from the heart.

In my office, I keep a file full--and I actually have some framed--of just words put to paper. Songs are simply expressions of the heart that are yielded from the mind through the heart that come out of the mouth that touch the souls of others.

Then there is my dad and my mom. My dad went to school with a young man who went on to become known as Whispering Bill Anderson. He started his songwriting in my district, the Ninth District, living in Commerce, Georgia, at the time, at WWJC. The radio station is still there.

My understanding of the story from Bill was he was on top of the building and he wrote this song, ``City Lights,'' which was performed by Ray Price. He has transcended the decades because one of his last songs was ``Whiskey Lullaby'' that was performed by Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss.

You see, this is about stories. Neo is one of our Georgia folks. Streaming companies are making a lot of money off of an outdated system in which they are able to pay songwriters less than the fair market value for the right to use their work. This is Neo.

It is time for Congress to stand with songwriters, #standwithsongwriters. I know there are many out there watching, on Twitter, Facebook. There are a lot of places where we can get this message out. This is simply about fairness.

As I come to a close tonight, I am reminded even today of when I was in Iraq just a few years ago. There were songs that I would hear as I was driving around and I was meeting with some servicemembers out on the gate post. We would talk about a lot of things: family, love, life, problems.

It would always come around and something would be on the radio and a song would come across. To this day, if a certain song is played--it could be ``Chicken Fried'' by the Zac Brown Band--I can still believe that I am still in Iraq. I still go back to those times and I see those young men and young women who are protecting us and are protecting us all over the world.

You see, that is what the songwriter does. The songwriter takes the moment, crystallizes it, forms it, just as they would any product that they make that comes out of their mind, flowing straight from the heart, out of the mouth, onto a pad, through their hand, and touches lives around the world.

It is time for Congress to look. It is time for Congress to understand that this is about small business and small entrepreneurs. It is time for Congress to stand with songwriters.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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