What is AHRA and where does the money come from?
These are payments that were created from the enactment of the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) by the US Congress. The AHRA imposes an obligation on importers and manufacturers of digital audio recording devices and media to submit a royalty payment set by statute to the Register of Copyrights. The AHRA provides that 66 2/3% of those royalties shall be allocated to a Sound Recordings Fund. The Act further provides that 2 5/8 % of the Sound Recordings Fund shall be placed in an escrow account managed by an Independent Administrator appointed by the AFM, and the record companies, to be distributed to non-featured musicians who have performed on sound recordings distributed in the United States, and that 1 3/8 % shall be similarly placed in an escrow account managed by an Independent Administrator appointed by AFTRA, and the record companies and distributed to non-featured vocalists.
