According to Billboard, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) sent a letter to Judiciary Committee leadership in both the House of Representatives and Senate. NMPA is asking for an update to the Copyright Act, which “prevents private negotiations in a free market” for mechanical royalty rates for songwriters and music publishers in the U.S.

In a new letter, the NMPA mentions that doing away with the 100 year old system of government regulated price setting for songwriter and publisher royalties and allowing rate negotiations to occur in a free market would prevent songwriters and publishers from being taken advantage of by streaming services.

The letter arrives just after music publishers, the NMPA and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC,) which collects and distributes mechanical royalties for U.S. publishers and songwriters, sent a cease and desist letter to Spotify for paying a lower U.S. mechanical royalty rate for premium, duo and family plans, starting in March 2024. Spotify believes that the addition of audiobooks to premium, duo and family plans qualifies the tiers as bundles, a type of subscription that pays a lower royalty rate.

The rate for licenses is determined by a set of Copyright Royalty Board judges, who weigh the interests of the music business against that of tech companies like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more to determine what they feel is a fair price for music.