The copyright laws were written before we had digital music media.  The evolution of the digital music industry has created new markets and products that are not addressed in the current laws.

A proposed bill, The Free Market Royalty Act, would amend the US Copyright Act to add a public performance right for audio transmissions of sound recordings, giving performing artists the right to collect royalties when their songs are broadcast on radio, Pandora, Sirius XM and other services.

There will also no longer be compulsory licenses for digital audio transmissions, giving artists the ability to individually negotiate these rights. Alternatively, an artist can have those royalty rates negotiated by SoftExchange, Inc. an industry non-profit created for collecting royalties of performing artists.