MC Lyte Honoured by SoundExchange for Fighting Radio Royalties Reform
SoundExchange has awarded rapper MC Lyte its Music Fairness Award, recognising her years of advocacy for a US law that would force terrestrial radio stations to pay recording artists when their songs are played on air.
The announcement came on Wednesday, August 19. SoundExchange — the US-designated body that collects digital performance royalties from services like SiriusXM, Pandora and iHeartRadio and distributes them to creators — said the award honoured MC Lyte's push for passage of the American Music Fairness Act, or AMFA. That bill, reintroduced in the 119th Congress in February 2025 by Representatives Darrell Issa and Jerry Nadler and Senators Marsha Blackburn and Alex Padilla, would require AM and FM radio broadcasters to pay performance royalties to artists and rights holders. More than 300 artists backed the bill by signing an open letter to Congressional leaders the same month, according to Music Business Worldwide.
The core dispute is straightforward. Digital and satellite radio services pay royalties to recording artists through SoundExchange. Traditional terrestrial radio does not — and has not for the roughly 100 years that commercial radio has operated in the United States. SoundExchange President and CEO Michael Huppe, who was quoted praising MC Lyte in the award announcement, has argued that broadcasters pay artists nothing for the songs they play, a gap the AMFA is designed to close.
MC Lyte, born Lana Michele Moorer, has been among the bill's most visible advocates. In 2024 she joined Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of RUN-DMC and Melle Mel on Capitol Hill to meet lawmakers about the legislation. She returned to Capitol Hill in summer 2025 to press members of Congress again. Huppe himself testified on the AMFA before the Senate Judiciary Committee's intellectual property subcommittee in December 2025, alongside KISS co-founder Gene Simmons.
MC Lyte is one of nearly 600,000 creators who use SoundExchange to collect neighbouring rights royalties — payments owed to performers and rights holders when their recordings are played on digital platforms, collected in the US and through more than 100 international agreements covering 93% of the available global market. SoundExchange says it has collected and distributed more than $13 billion in digital performance royalties to date and represents more than 850,000 music creators. (An earlier company description lists a slightly different membership figure; the more recent source is used here.)
MC Lyte was also named to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's 2026 class in its Early Influence category, adding to a year in which her stature as both a pioneer and an advocate has drawn institutional recognition. She was quoted expressing gratitude to SoundExchange and pledging to stand with the organisation in the fight for music fairness.
Whether the American Music Fairness Act reaches a floor vote in the current Congress remains an open question. What is not in question is that one of hip-hop's foundational voices intends to keep knocking on doors until it does.
