# 119-hr-8994: Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026

119-hr-8994, Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Ross, Deborah K. [D-NC-2] (D-NC); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-07-25).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-8994
- As of: 2026-07-25
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-8994
- Congress: 119
- Title: Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-05-21
- Sponsor: Rep. Ross, Deborah K. [D-NC-2] (D-NC)
- Cosponsors: 3
- Policy area: Commerce
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-07-25

## Summary

**Safe harbor for collective bargaining by independent music creators**. This bill would let small copyright-owning musicians band together to negotiate licensing terms or refuse to license their recordings with very large online music platforms or generative AI developers without antitrust liability, so long as narrow conditions are met. - Independent creators: Musicians who own sound-recording copyrights and who earned less than $1.0 million in licensing revenue last year or qualify as a small business under NAICS 512250 can jointly negotiate or withhold licenses with protection from antitrust claims. - Platforms and AI developers: A "dominant online music distribution platform" is any public listening service with more than $100.0 million in annual music distribution revenue and that is not eligible for a statutory license under 17 U.S.C. 114(d)(2). The safe harbor also covers talks with developers or deployers of generative artificial intelligence that make new media from user prompts. - Limits and legal guardrails: The protection applies only when coordination is not limited to price, is nondiscriminatory among similarly situated creators, is directly related and reasonably necessary for the negotiations, and involves only creators and the platform or AI developer. The bill also says it does not otherwise change existing antitrust law.

## Cosponsors (3)

- Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9] (D-TN), 2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Doggett, Lloyd [D-TX-37] (D-TX), 2026-05-21T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Goldman, Daniel S. [D-NY-10] (D-NY), 2026-05-29T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Safe harbor for independent music creators: mixed, medium. If enacted, the bill would create a limited antitrust safe harbor for qualifying independent music creators to negotiate or jointly refuse to license their sound recordings. You would qualify as an Individual Music Creator Owner if you own copyrights to one or more sound recordings and earned under…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-7977: Energy Bills Relief Act
- 119-hr-7973: Momnibus Act
- 119-hr-3971: Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act
- 119-hr-2913: Ukraine Support Act
- 119-hr-7853: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026
- 119-hres-1058: Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights to protect and codify the rights of transgender…

## Sources
- [119-hr-8994 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8994)

## Related
- [119-hr-7977: Energy Bills Relief Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7977)
- [119-hr-7973: Momnibus Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7973)
- [119-hr-3971: Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3971)
- [119-hr-2913: Ukraine Support Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2913)
- [119-hr-7853: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7853)
- [119-hres-1058: Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implem…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hres-1058)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-8994 (as of 2026-07-25).