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H.R. 8994: Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026

119th Congress · introduced 2026-05-21 · Commerce · Latest: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

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What does this mean?

Official title

Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026

Plain summary

Protect Working Musicians Act of 202 6 This bill allows certain individual music creator owners to collectively negotiate music licensing terms with dominant online music distribution platforms or companies engaged in development or deployment of generative artificial intelligence, including the right to collectively refuse to license their music to such platforms or companies. Individual music creator owners include musicians, producers, and technicians who own the copyright to a recording and either (1) earned less than $1 million in associated revenues during the prior year, or (2) qualify as a record production and distribution small business. Dominant online music distribution platforms include interactive online services with annual revenues from music distribution of more than $100 million. Generative artificial intelligence includes artificial intelligence systems that are capable of producing novel text, video, images, audio, and other media based on prompts or other forms of inputted data.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Ross, Deborah K. [D-NC-2] · 3 cosponsors

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Words on this page, explained (2)
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Computer systems that do tasks that usually need human judgment, such as recognizing images, understanding language or making predictions. Laws about AI often cover how it is used, tested, disclosed or limited.
Bill
A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Record fed-us-cong119-hr8994 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong119 · updated 2026-11-03 by psicol fed-bills