A coalition of music industry organizations has urged the United States Trade Representative to oppose a proposal under consideration by the European Commission that it says could jeopardize nearly USD $300 million in annual royalties paid to American artists and rightsholders.
The coalition set out its case in a letter sent to the USTR on Wednesday (July 8), which you can read in full here.
Signatories to the letter include SoundExchange, The Recording Academy, ASCAP, BMI, SAG-AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians, the American Association of Independent Music, the Artist Rights Alliance, the Christian Music Trade Association, the Future of Music Coalition, Music Managers Forum-US, the National Independent Talent Organization, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists.
At issue is a potential European Union legislative proposal that would overturn the 2020 Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision in RAAP (Recorded Artists Actors Performers Ltd), which extended national-treatment protections to American recording artists and labels.
The coalition says replacing those protections with a “material reciprocity” framework would codify discrimination against US creators and reduce the royalty payments American artists currently receive from Europe.
“National treatment has long been a cornerstone of the global copyright system, ensuring American creators – including recording artists, musicians, and performers – are treated no less favorably than domestic rightsholders abroad,” the coalition wrote.
“The Commission’s proposed shift to reciprocity would condition these protections on U.S. law, replacing a clear, rules-based system with one that is fragmented, uncertain and would directly disadvantage U.S. creators in foreign markets.”
“National treatment has long been a cornerstone of the global copyright system, ensuring American creators – including recording artists, musicians, and performers – are treated no less favorably than domestic rightsholders abroad.”
The organizations noted that 21 of the European Union’s 27 member states currently provide national treatment and pay royalties to American artists and rightsholders.
They warned that a reciprocity-based system would likely lead to reduced or withheld payments, increased administrative burdens, and politically driven eligibility determinations for US creators.
The coalition also cautioned that the EU proposal could carry consequences beyond Europe, weakening international copyright protections and encouraging other countries to adopt similar measures. Such a move would undermine transatlantic cooperation on intellectual property and erode principles of nondiscrimination in global copyright systems, the letter argues.
The RAAP ruling, handed down in September 2020, held that EU member states could not deny performance royalties to non-EU performers on the basis of reciprocity.
European trade groups have previously pushed back, warning that the loss of reciprocity could transfer around €125 million ($137 million) a year in recorded-music royalties out of Europe to US rightsholders, according to estimates from indie-label body IMPALA.
In the letter, the coalition pointed to the American Music Fairness Act (H.R. 861/S. 326) as a path for strengthening artist compensation while maintaining adherence to international trade and copyright principles.
The bill, authored by Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), would require AM/FM radio corporations to pay artists for the music they play, as Spotify, Apple Music, SiriusXM, and Pandora already do.
Blackburn and Issa reintroduced the American Music Fairness Act in January 2025. At the time, Blackburn said: “The United States is the only democratic country in the world in which artists are not paid for the use of their music on AM and FM radio.”
In December 2025, KISS co-founder Gene Simmons testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Intellectual Property Subcommittee in support of the legislation.
American broadcasters do pay songwriters and publishers for the compositions they air, and BMI in 2025 secured what it called its “largest rate increase ever” in a settlement with the Radio Music License Committee. But artists and labels receive nothing for the recordings themselves, a gap SoundExchange has long campaigned to close.
SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe, whose organization co-signed the USTR letter, made the same case in a recent op-ed for MBW, framing the EU proposal as “outright trade discrimination against American artists.”
Other markets, meanwhile, are moving in the opposite direction. In June 2026, Japan passed a copyright reform requiring performers and record companies to be paid when recordings are played in public, leaving the United States as the only OECD member without such a right.
Music Business Worldwide