IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT NEWS: At a Senate hearing on intellectual property, Gene Simmons gets a warm reception—while radio gets raked over the coals, (Dec 10, 2025)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

The Kiss frontman, in town to receive Kennedy Center honors, lobbies for record labels and recording artists to be compensated for terrestrial radio airplay.

A rock and roll music star from the 1970s and 1980s was the frontman once again at a Senate hearing over a bill that would amend the Copyright Act to compensate record labels and recording artists for terrestrial radio airplay. The hearing, in front of the Intellectual Property subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, featured a panel of Senators who appeared to unanimously favor the pending legislation—and were highly critical of the sole radio industry representative who testified in support of the status quo.

The purpose of the hearing was to consider the American Music Fairness Act, a bill introduced by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and sponsored, as of this date, by Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). The hearing, which was led by subcommittee chairman Tillis and ranking minority member Schiff, featured three music industry witnesses: Michael Huppe, the President & Chief Executive Officer of royalty-collection organization Sound Exchange and an advocate for the recorded music industry; Henry Hinton, the President of Inner Banks Media, LLC and an advocate for radio stations; and Gene Simmons, the famed tongue-wagging lead singer of the rock band Kiss and an advocate for performers. (Simmons was also in town as a recipient of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors).

The bill would address a longstanding disparity in the way that the songwriters and performers are compensated when music is played over traditional terrestrial (that is, AM/FM) radio. Under law that dates back to the turn of the 20th century, radio stations must compensate only the holders of the musical composition rights to the music—that is songwriters or the music publishing companies that hold those rights. Radio stations have never been required, however, to compensate the owners of the sound recordings in which those are musical compositions are embedded—that is, record labels and the performers who are paid royalties by those labels. (When music is performed over digital radio services, such as Pandora or iHeartRadio, by contrast, owners of music composition and sound recording rights are both entitled to compensation—composition owners at rates negotiated between the parties and sound recording owners at rates set by a federal regulatory tribunal.) Similar bills have been introduced in multiple sessions of Congress in the past, but to no avail.

Huppe’s prepared remarks emphasized the need to create “a fair balance” for the music industry. Artists and other music creators deserve to be paid for their work, whenever and wherever it is used—period,” Huppe stated. “It’s not complicated. It’s something every American intuitively understands because we all have the right to benefit from our own creativity, hard work, and labor.” Huppe noted that “all other developed nations respect artists by providing such a right” and emphasized that “the United States, at least on this issue, is counted among the most notorious abusers of property rights—joining North Korea, Cuba, and Iran—in our failure to secure the rights of artists.”

Simmon’s prepared remarks emphasized that the music business “has been turned upside down by technology, making it harder than ever to make a living” as a performer. He emphasized that American artists “have never been paid for radio airplay.” Mentioning the names of great such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Garth Brooks, and George Strait, Simmons emphasized that “none of them ever got a royalty check” when their songs played on the radio. “Advertisers pay big money to reach those listeners,” Simmon noted. “And the artists who created the music that makes it all work? They get bupkis. I don't know about you, but where I come from, that's called robbery.”

Hinton’s prepared remarks, meanwhile, emphasized that imposition of the new royalty requirement “would be economically devastating for local radio stations”—stations that, Hinton emphasized, play a “critical role as trusted first informers and emergency lifelines.” While this critical lifeline service “is free to listeners,” Hinton noted, “it is not to those who provide it. Radio operators invest heavily in local programming and the employees who make it unique to our communities. Radio stations also pay countless other fees, including annual FCC regulatory assessments and copyright royalties to performing rights organizations like ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC, and streaming collectives like SoundExchange.” The proposed legislation, Hinton noted, would impose “a new burdensome royalty” upon those stations.

Senators were extremely supportive of the bill, as shown in repeated softball questions to Kiss performer Simmons. “It’s well past time to pass the American Music Fairness Act,” Senator Blackburn said to Simmons. “I want you to say very succinctly say ‘this is why we need to do it today.’” She also asked Simmons to “talk about the significance” of getting session musicians paid for radio play. Senator Padilla, in turn, asked Simmons to comment on “what these types of royalty payments [terrestrial radio royalties] mean for emerging artists who are trying to build their careers.” (“Every little bit helps,” the artist said.) Schiff, meanwhile, asked Simmons how the music industry had evolved and “what it means today to not be compensated.”

Senator Schiff also asked Simmons to elaborate on why the initial rationale for the existing policy—the promotional impact of radio play—“doesn’t somehow create enough incentive to make up for the lack of being paid.” Simmons happily agreed with the premise: “What you say is so.” Senator Tillis also gave Huppe the chance to address the promotion question. “If there truly is promotion,” Huppe said, then I would expect radio broadcasters to put their money where their mouth is and recognize it will be a factor expressly considered by the people that set the rates for this.” Senator Tillis, serving another softball to the panel, asked Huppe to elaborate on the impact of the bill to others who might be benefited other than recording artists, such as producers and engineers. (“This affects the entire recorded music side of the business,” Huppe responded”).

Simmons’s repertoire and star appeal also did not go unnoticed by the subcommittee. Senator Schiff, when it was his turn to ask questions, began by saying to Simmons “I want to ask you about the song ‘Beth,’ but I’m not going to do that.” (Senator Tillis later took pains to note that “it was Peter Criss who sang the lead” on that song.) Senator Padilla, meanwhile, asked Simmons “what advice you would have” for his ten-year-old son who was playing the electric bass and the electric guitar. (“Have a fallback position,” Simmons said, to laughter).

By contrast, committee members were universally unsparing of the radio industry’s position on the bill. Hinton, particularly, was sharply challenged by Senator Blackburn. “Not paying artists – their getting zero for their sound, their voice on the radio, they are getting zero money,” Senator Blackburn noted. “Do you think that causes harm to the artist?” When Hinton began by saying “thank you for the question.” Senator Blackburn jumped in to say “don’t say thank you for the question because it eats up time.” A few seconds into his answer, she interrupted again to “move on” and said: “You are causing harm. You’ve got an Elvis station. You’ve never paid [producer] Sam Morris’s estate a dime for ‘Soul Man’.” She continued: “And you talk about free service [but] do your advertisers look at you and say free service? The answer to that is no.” Senator Blackburn declined to allow Hinton to respond to any of her rhetorical questions.

Senator Schiff, turn, challenged Hinton to explain why carveouts in the draft bill that provide relief for small radio stations and college stations were not adequate. These provisions would apply only to “a small number of stations” but there were 4000 stations in the country—“including some of mine,” Hinton noted—that would not be covered by the exemption. “There are small market broadcasters in the market right now that are barely hanging on.” Hinton also emphasized that radio stations are competing with streaming services which are “owned by some of the largest companies in the world.”

Senator Tillis, meanwhile, challenged Hinton to answer whether the radio industry had done any economic modeling of “what the impact would be on your stations if this bill were ratified.” (He seemed disappointed when Hinton said he had not.) And Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked Hinton how he could answer the “basic question” of why, “if you broadcast somebody’s creative work,” they should not get paid. When Hinton stated that this was a system that had been working for 100 years, Senator Welch interrupted: “But seriously—it’s worked for you for 100 years.”

Simmons, too, took on the radio station representative directly in his live testimony. “I’m not here to demonize Mr. Hinton or the radio stations. We need each other. Performers need radio; radio needs performers. But for god sakes, equitable doesn’t mean you get zero and radio gets $14 billion just this last year. That’s not equitable. I know it’s a big word like gymnasium, but come on Hinton, let’s get with it.” (“I’m a little surprised that radio’s been demonized the way it is,” Hinton said at one point in the hearing”).

USPTO Director weighs in. In a related development, on the same day of the hearing the United States Patent and Trademark Office came out with its public support for compensating sound recording owners for the use of their work over terrestrial radio. In a letter addressed to the ranking and minority members of the House and Senate judiciary committees, the PTO noted that the Department of Commerce has endorsed such a right “with the support of multiple administrations” going back to the Carter administration. “In today's digital music marketplace, where performers and record labels face both unprecedented challenges and opportunities,” the PTO noted, “providing incentives for America's performing artists and recording companies is particularly essential and fair.”

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