Recording Artists Urge Congress to Pair AM Radio Vehicle Mandate, Terrestrial Radio Royalty
Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow and 14 other recording artists urged congressional leaders Tuesday against passing the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-979/S-315) unless it moves in tandem with the American Music Fairness Act (HR-861/S-326). HR-979/S-315 would require the Department of Transportation to mandate that future automobiles include AM radio technology, mostly affecting electric vehicles. The House Commerce Committee advanced HR-979 in September (see 2509170068), while the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the slightly different S-315 in February.
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“In the [U.S.,] every person deserves to be paid for the use of their work,” the musicians said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the chambers’ Democratic leaders. HR-861/S-326 would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio. House leaders at the end of the last Congress jettisoned an earlier version of the AM radio legislation from a December 2024 continuing resolution because Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and others pressed to add in the music fairness language (see 2502100072).
Major broadcasters’ “power” in Washington means “artists, both big and small, continue to be overlooked, even as every other music delivery platform, including streaming services and satellite radio, pays both the songwriter and performer,” the musicians told congressional leaders. When “you save the radio industry by mandating its technology remain in cars, we ask that you save the musician too and allow us to be paid fairly when our music is played.” The artists “do not oppose terrestrial radio. In fact, we appreciate the role that radio has played in our careers and within society, but the 100-year-old argument of promotion that radio continues to hide behind does not ring true in 2025.”