October 1, 2020
The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
The Honorable Steven Mnuchin
Secretary
Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania, NW
Washington, DC 20200
Re: Additional Benefits for Mixed Earners – Mixed Earner Coalition Letter of Support
By Dawoud Kringle
The music world suffered an incalculable loss after the untimely passing of Steve Gordon, Esq.
Gordon graduated from SUNY Binghamton, in 1987, earning a B.A. (with Honors), New York University School of Law, J.D. in 1981, and earned a French Language Certificate from the University of Paris in 1982.
From 1981 to 1983 he served as a law clerk in the Appellate Division of the NYS Supreme Court, ( the second highest court in the New York State judicial system). 1983 to 1984 saw him employed as a Music Attorney by Dino Di Laurentis in Beverly Hills, CA, where he negotiated and drafted soundtrack recording agreements and contracts with composers for this Hollywood movie studio. Gordon served as a SESAC Senior Counsel between 1985 and1990. He handled the licensing of music for public performance on radio, television, cable, nightclubs, arenas, amusement parks, and background music services in the United States and throughout the world. From 1990 to 1991 he worked as an Associate with Mayer Katz Baker & Liebowitz, where he negotiated and drafted recording agreement for Elektra and Atlantic Records and recording artists including In Excess, Billy Idol and Boy George.
Please send/forward this request to your Senators and to any and all family, friends and colleagues you deem appropriate and request that they in turn also send it to their Senators and to any and all family, friends and colleagues etc. they deem appropriate ….. as well. As time is of great importance here please act promptly, delay could spell the death of this helpful legislation.
Copy and paste this message marked in green below and send it to your senators.
Text by Dawoud Kringle (with Ken Hatfield)
The U.S. House of Representatives embraced music licensing reform, and supported the efforts to update the US’ antiquated copyright laws.
The new Senate bill combines three separate pieces of legislation:
1. The Music Modernization Act of 2018 (S.2334, introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in January, which updates licensing and royalties as pertains to streaming).
2. The CLASSICS Act (or Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society Act, introduced in February by Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Kennedy (R-LA) to ensure that songwriters and artists receive royalties on pre-1972 songs).
3. The AMP Act (or Allocation for Music Producers Act, introduced in March by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-LA) and ranking committee member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA.) with the support of and Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Kamala Harris (D-CA).
