More than 150 artists, including Paul McCartney and Katy Perry, are calling on SiriusXM to pay more royalties

More than 150 artists and music industry executives wrote a strongly worded letter to the parent company of SiriusXM radio to pressure the satellite radio company to change its licensing practices, Variety reported Monday.

The issue at hand is the Music Modernization Act, a bill with wide support in Congress that would update licensing policies for music streamed on services like Spotify and Apple Music. Songwriters and performers largely like the idea because it would "modernize" the process of claiming royalties and make it easier to protect licenses.

SiriusXM has objected to portions of the legislation, reports Billboard, on the grounds that it does not want to pay for pre-1972 recordings based on the same copyright laws as post-1972 recordings. Non-satellite radio does not pay for royalties in this way, and SiriusXM has argued that it should get the same exemptions.

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The portion of the music industry that has been vying for the MMA to pass is not happy with SiriusXM's opposition. "SiriusXM's unwillingness to support songwriters and artists is complete travesty given that every other group in the music industry has endorsed the bill," said MMA attorney Dina LaPolt. "This shows their disgusting corporate greed at the expense of America's greatest treasures ... our legacy artists."

The massive group of music industry names has joined together "to show that we are not just music. We are an army," said songwriter Ross Golan. "This letter is only a warning shot." Golan was joined by Paul McCartney, Carole King, Katy Perry, Pink, Sia, Carly Simon, Gloria Estefan, Stevie Nicks, and Don Henley, among others, reports Variety. "We do not want to fight and boycott your company but we will," reads the letter. "We can either fight to the bitter end or celebrate this victory together." Read more at Variety.