Music Modernization Act Introduced In Congress

The Music Modernization Act was rolled out Tuesday. It will allow artists to receive fair market compensation for their songs that are played on digital streaming services, such as Spotify and Pandora.

For artists, like three-time Grammy Award winners Little Big Town, it offers relief to outdated laws.

"We’re incredibly encouraged that this long overdue bill to protect songwriters and the entire creative community is finally coming to fruition. The song is where it all begins for us as artists," the country music group, comprised of Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook, said to ABC News.

"The laws that were in place were completely antiquated and desperately needed to be changed in light of the digital world we live in now. This will be a big win for our collaborators here in Nashville."

Copyright laws go back more than a century and have not been updated in years.

"You have a 1909 statue trying to govern 2018 technology, and it doesn't work," John Simson, a professor at the American University and founding member of Sound Exchange, a non-profit organization set up to collect and distribute performance royalties, told ABC News.

The Music Modernization Act was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

It combines the legislation introduced in December, under the same name, as well as the Allocation for Music Producers Act, which provides royalties for music producers; the CLASSICS Act, which provides royalties for songs created before 1972 from digital streaming services; and a watered down Fair Play, Fair Pay Act, which does not include the provision that broadcast radio should pay for songs.