H.R. 8994 · Where this bill is now
In committee
Introduced in the House, sent to the Committee on the Judiciary, May 21, 2026
What this bill does
In plain words · AI-written from the official summaryMusicians gain collective bargaining power
This bill lets certain independent musicians and music creators work together to negotiate better licensing deals with big music streaming platforms and companies developing artificial intelligence. They could collectively decide whether to license their music to these companies, including the power to refuse altogether. The bill applies to individual music creators who own their recordings and either earned less than $1 million in music revenue last year or qualify as a small music business.
How it affects you
If you're a working musician, producer, or music technician who owns your recordings and hasn't hit $1 million in annual revenue, this could give you more leverage in negotiations. Instead of dealing with major platforms and AI companies one at a time, you could act as part of a group. Independent artists and small music producers feel this most directly, since larger music companies already have more bargaining power.
Read the official summary (Introduced in House, May 21, 2026)
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.
Written by AI (Claude) using only the official summary by the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress’s nonpartisan research staff. It can miss nuance, so check the official summary and the bill text for details.
2nd SessionH. R. 8994
A BILL
Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026
Sponsor: Rep. Deborah K. Ross (D-NC-2) · Introduced May 21, 2026 · Commerce · 1 version of the text
Sources: Congress.gov actions and votes · bill text from GovInfo · latest official action May 21, 2026: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.”