Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026

Key Points

• This bill creates an antitrust safe harbor so independent musicians can band together to negotiate licensing terms with large streaming platforms and AI companies. Right now, if small artists tried to coordinate on pricing or terms, they could face lawsuits for violating antitrust law.
• The bill targets major online platforms making over $100 million a year from music distribution. It also covers companies building or using generative AI systems, addressing growing concerns about AI being trained on musicians' work without fair compensation.
• To qualify, a musician or group must own their own copyrights and either earn less than $1 million a year in licensing revenue or qualify as a small business. This keeps the protections focused on independent creators, not major label artists.
• Congress finds that the current Digital Millennium Copyright Act system forces musicians to play a losing game of chasing down unlicensed copies of their work online, while platforms profit from that same unlicensed music.
• Independent musicians would also gain the legal right to collectively refuse to license their music if negotiations fail, giving them a real bargaining chip they currently lack when dealing with powerful platforms.