Guess who’s coming to town? The House Judiciary Committee!
Congressman Darrell Issa will host a Field Hearing this Friday in LA connected to the recording industry. The meeting is set for 9am at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s all about AI, of course, as well as copyrights, trademarks, and artists rights.
The players will be from a subcommittee on all these issues. The 10 reps want to hear what’s going on with all these things. Issa, a Republican, is “very involved in artists rights,” a source says. Among the subjects will be radio monetization — in other words, radio companies trying to avoid paying performance royalties. )We’re always up for that conversation.)
AI is a looming problem for the music industry as Frankenstein records are being created without anyone’s permission. A fake song by Drake and The Weeknd turned up last year, and since then Spotify has been on the lookout for equally fake albums by many artists.
Issa is serious about this stuff. He holds 37 patents himself. So he knows the perils of what’s coming. It’s hoped that some name recording artists will rouse themselves out of bed and participate in the conversation. So far they’ve got country star Lainey Wilson. They’ve also got Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.; Christopher Mohr, president of the Software and Information Industry Association; and Jennifer Rothman, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The hearing will be in person and also live streamed. So stay tuned…