North Carolina Congresswoman Deborah Ross, in partnership with ten of the music industry’s most influential rights advocacy groups (including A2IM, ARA, and SONA), will host Our Seat at the Table, a conversation with artists, songwriters and independent record label representatives about how to ensure that all members of the creative community have the ability to participate in the evolving streaming and AI economy.

The virtual forum will be held on Thursday, August 6th at 2:00 PM EST.  Rep. Ross will discuss her recently introduced Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026 (PWMA), which would give artists, songwriters, and indie labels and publishers the ability to negotiate collectively with large-scale streaming companies and AI developers. The PWMA would finally give a voice to the thousands of music creators and small business owners whose livelihoods have been dictated rather than negotiated, and would create a new path toward fair royalty payments.

The online conversation will feature representatives spanning the independent music community. Forum hosts include: the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), Fan Alliance, Folk Alliance, Future of Music Coalition, Music Artists Coalition (MAC), Music Managers Forum US (MMF-US), National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), Recording Academy, and Songwriters of North America (SONA).

DATE: Thursday, August 6th 

TIME: 2:00 PM EST/1:00 PM CST/11:00 AM PST

REGISTER AT https://a2im.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Kx6WZT8uTAysYJZkFgltiQ#/registration