There are a lot of policy meetings on Capitol Hill — and they pretty much never end in song.

But when Republican congressional aides sat down recently for a meeting on musicians’ rights, the person across the table was Aloe Blacc, the songwriter behind “Wake Me Up,” which earlier this year was revealed as the most streamed song in Spotify history. Not your typical Washington lobbyist, the Grammy-nominated artist busted out an a cappella version of one of his unreleased songs as the hourlong meeting wrapped.


But Blacc was hardly the only musician to bring his star power to Washington this year in a push for stronger copyrights and higher royalty payments as the music world shifts to digital music platforms like Spotify, Pandora and SiriusXM. And he won’t be the last: 2015 is likely to bring more rock stars to Washington, each looking to make their mark on the growing debate over the future of music.

Industry lobbying groups say they’re planning to increasingly leverage the name recognition of recording artists and songwriters to add firepower to traditional lobbying efforts as they ramp up advocacy campaigns for musicians’ rights. The efforts — which this year brought artists like Rosanne Cash, Lady Antebellum and Steven Tyler to D.C. — reflect a growing tumult in the music industry, as listeners shift preferences from hard-copy music toward downloads and the streaming marketplace.

“The attention that a star brings to the issue, sometimes you just can’t get from Washington lobbyists,” said Daryl Friedman, chief advocacy officer for the The Recording Academy. “They do relate to each other. We find when we bring creators in and members meet them, there is a sort of simpatico kind of relationship.”

It’s not that celebrities have previously stayed away from D.C. fights that caught their interest; musicians like Don Henley have long spoken up about artists’ rights. But the influx of digital music services — not to mention a high-profile decision by Taylor Swift in November to pull her new album “1989” and older songs from Spotify — has reignited a public debate over the value of music and how much platforms should have to pay to play a tune.

At the Capitol last week, Blacc met with aides to House Speaker John Boehner and other key Republican offices. Lawmakers will have a front-row seat to more music-makers next year as Congress eyes a comprehensive look at music law reform.

“My goal is to educate myself more and be a voice for songwriters, who quite often don’t really have a big enough voice because you don’t really see the songwriter behind the scenes,” Blacc said in an interview in the office of Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), who has emerged as a leading voice on songwriter rights. “People don’t even really know where the song comes from.”

Musicians coming to D.C. are wading into a thorny and complex policy debate. The industry’s various constituencies have several gripes about the current state of copyright and music law, like the lack of royalties paid to recording artists by broadcast radio stations, and the 70-year-old Justice Department consent decrees that apply to performing rights organizations like the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers. Older musicians have come to Washington to fight a copyright loophole that offers fewer rights to songs recorded before 1972, and still others simply want more money per song played from digital radio.

No matter the ask, music groups have been increasingly eager to bring creators to Washington — their version of the tried-and-true constituent visit — as part of the effort.

The Recording Academy hosts the annual Grammys on the Hill event each spring — which last year brought out performers like Dionne Warwick and saw three dozen lawmakers get on stage to chime in during a Lady Antebellum performance. But that group is far from alone — several other music industry groups have their own expanding efforts to bring recording artists and songwriters to Washington, like the National Music Publishers Association and Recording Industry Association of America. ASCAP, for its part, helped organize Blacc’s Washington meeting last week, and SoundExchange, which doles out digital sound recording royalties to performers, and the innovation-focused Future of Music Coalition also expect to bring music-makers to Washington.

Aloe Blacc sat down with Republican congressional aides for a meeting on musicians' rights. | AP Photo

“It’s just incredibly important that policy people hear from the people on the ground,” said RIAA Senior Executive Vice President Mitch Glazier.

Recording artists and songwriters generally pitch lawmakers on reforming laws to increase their own payouts — almost assuredly raising the price of operation for the platforms that play their music. But digital music services also have their own champions: U2’s Bono and country artist Jo Dee Messina have both praised streaming services as a way to reach new listeners, as have older artists whose music has made a resurgence thanks to platforms making use of their back catalog of tunes. Those artists have been vocal in the press and op-eds — but thus far, less active in Washington.

I can’t imagine that this is at the top of their [Congress’] list but it’s at the top of mine”

“A lot of the artists view the platforms as being very productive, and it really depends on where you are in your career as an artist,” said Greg Barnes, general counsel for the Digital Media Association, which represents companies like Pandora, Apple and Amazon.

The House Judiciary Committee has been reviewing the nation’s copyright and music laws over the past two years, and the industry is eagerly hoping that the 114th Congress will move quickly on updating them. But while Chairman Bob Goodlatte says he is committed to his copyright review — bluntly declaring in a statement this month that copyright work would be handled at the full committee instead of in the smaller intellectual property subcommittee — the panel isn’t likely to consider a music licensing bill right out of the gate in 2015. A committee aide declined to speculate on the timing or content of any music licensing bill.

And the line of musicians, songwriters, record labels and music platforms are not top of mind for most of Congress — a reality that’s not lost on those pushing for copyright changes.

“I can’t imagine that this is at the top of their list but it’s at the top of mine,” Blacc said. “It’s just a matter of letting them know what is occurring and giving them an idea about something that affects everybody’s lives because I can’t imagine that anyone I’m gonna speak to today goes through the day without music.”