Idolator
Following a campaign that included mailing herring and a dictionary to their current nemeses in the terrestrial radio industry, a consortium of groups comprising record labels, songwriters, and musicians, had a small victory yesterday, when a House of Representatives subcommittee passed a bill that would require performance royalties being paid when songs are played anywhere on the AM/FM dial. A co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), didn't go so far as to say that radio spins are tantamount to piracy, but he did profess skepticism about the medium's promotional value, saying that there's merely "a correlation, not causation" between being on a top-40 station's playlist and music sales. But now that it's come out of committee, will the bill make it out of the House?
"The approach we've taken to establish performance rights for musicians will provide broadcasters the opportunity to account for any promotional value they provide in the course of determining their royalty rate," Berman said.
Under the bill, medium-sized stations would pay "a negotiated and arbitrated rate," while smaller as well as noncommercial stations would pay a discounted rate, possibly even nothing.
The NAB remains unconvinced.
"Today's vote comes as a complete nonsurprise given the House IP subcommittee's history of support for the Recording Industry Assn. of America-backed tax on local radio stations," said NAB exec veep Dennis Wharton. "Despite today's action, there remains broad bipartisan resistance to the RIAA tax from members of Congress who question whether a punitive fee on America's hometown radio stations should be used to bail out the failing business model of foreign-owned record labels."
Wharton said 219 House members and 13 senators oppose a forced performance royalty
Framing this as a victory for musicians rings a bit hollow to me, since from what I understand the royalty will pay the entities who own copyrights on the songs, which in most major-label cases is—surprise!—the labels themselves. (Perhaps I should get in touch with members of those hard-rock bands who re-recorded their hit albums earlier this decade in order to own the copyrights on the performances of their songs for their perspective.) Me, I'm just waiting for the day that the labels start asking radio stations to repay all that payola cash—not to mention the "fruit and flowers"—they doled out over the years. That is when the real fun will begin.
House passes music royalty bill [Variety]
Comments
Easy solution. Every radio station will go to an all-talk format. It's not like people don't just listen to their iPods anyway when they want to listen to music.
"Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.)... saying that there's merely "a correlation, not causation" between being on a top-40 station's playlist and music sales" reveals that this gentleman is a complete forkin' idiot. Music sales determine every song that is a top-40 song; Top 40 is a indicator of the top 40 songs/singles being sold according to the sales figures from all the retail outlets that contribute their figures to Billboard magazine, which smelleth of causation to me. Jeeebuuss please take me now.
The music industry as it is is committing suicide, although it has been screaming over and over someone's, or better yet everyone's, trying to commit homicide. If every means that exists for someone like me to be exposed to any "new music", and this includes not only new bands/singers but new albums/singles (can that term even be used when talking 'bout downloads?; Christ, I'm such an ol' fart...) by established artists is cut off, the RIAA and whomever else has been pursuing this current business model will asphyxiate itself (nice term when referring to singing). Then when these shitheads die we can all start over again.
It ain't coincidence that all music and/or musicians I listen to now are either dead or way too damn old to be able to record anything other than their dentures clicking together and their artificial hips creaking- and this includes the Rolling Stones. I haven't even bothered with any music on the radio for about twenty or thirty years (again, Jeebuuss), since playlists have been strangled tightly by no-one straying from the songs exclusively listed by Billboard or other industry inbred publications. Gawd, it's been awful, and nothing new is able to sprout in such a corrosive environment as is the the present one. The only radio that is at all worthwhile are the little non-profit, usually college affiliated, stations who get a group of weirdos/fanatics/aficionados together who haul in there own collections and play what they damn well pleased... an it t'ain't whats on a playlist and you get to hear good old stuff and the interesting new stuff. These guys are dead meat with this legislation, since most of these station have to have a 3-month fund drive to replace a single transistor (or tube, since we ain't talking very elaborate set-ups) that's burned out in one of their control boards.
The music industry hasn't recorded a profit in a millennia, and they don't understand why. Draconian methods and legislation, heavy fees and taxation, this ain't they way to run anything- industry, government, whatever, let alone save anything in decline. Plus, it only produces really shitty music.
This pisses me off.
@Dead Air ummm Dead Air: How does it feel to be prophetic? All-talk won't be an option it will be the only format possible; it'll be mandatory. And I'm sorry but Rush (Limbaugh) ain't no substitute for "Purple Haze" (I ain't just old, but very old fashioned...).
By the way, do I owe someone somewhere royalties for typing the song title?
So, when this passes through the House and Senate and becomes a law (wha?), the radio stations no longer will have any financial incentive to play one song over another (e.g. during the Payola days, which I'm sure still are alive and well).
Would this lead to stations that choose to play music that actually is decent!?
No, no, you're right. Sorry to get excited.
The United States is the only industrialized western nation in which radio broadcasters do not pay a performance royalty. So those of you who are predicting the end of music on the radio are going to need to dig a little deeper and explain why that hasn't already happened elsewhere.
@PapaLegba: This is why I havenen't listened to anything besides WFMU and low-power Brooklyn community stations in over 10 years. Let commercial radio rot and wither, it's been shite for ages anyway.
I feel like I need to break down how the performance right actually works. 45% goes to the featured performer; 45% goes to the owner of the sound copyright; and 5% goes to the other players.
Dig this: the 45% that goes to the performer DOES NOT go to the label to be held against recoupables. This would amount to a pretty big victory for artists, who are often subject to some pretty bad deals with their labels.
We can all agree that commercial radio sucks, but this is more due to consolidation in station ownership than broadcasters' exemption from the performance royalty.
Another thing to think about: every industrialized nation on Earth has a performance right, which leaves the US in the company of Iraq, China and North Korea. It's a whole new axis! (The lack of a reciprocal right also leaves millions of dollars of uncollected dollars on the table for international play of US artists.)
And keep in mind that satellite radio and webcasters already pay this royalty. What makes the NAB so special? The broadcasters claim that it's all about promotional value, but with the fastest growing segments of commercial radio being '80s and '90s retro and classic rock, the argument doesn't really hold.
It's a question of parity really, and whether or not you think it's fair that songwriters and publishers are compensated but performing artists are not.
More info on the legislation, its supporters and detractors:
[futureofmusiccoalition.blogspot.com]
Eh...I dunno, man...
It's gonna go something like this:
Record Company Promo Guy: "Hey I've got music from a new band that I'd really like you to add into rotation. They're great kids, we hope for big things, and we sure could use your support"
Radio Music Director: "I dunno, Promo Guy. Our playlist is pretty tight and I've never heard of this band - why shsould I give them a shot?"
RCPG: "Please, man - I'm gonna get fired if I don't get the single on the air"
RMD: "OK fine. I'll help support your baby band, alienate my listeners who wanna hear music they're familiar with and help you keep your gig in the meantime. They seem like good kids and the single IS pretty good. I'll give in and be a champion of this new artist."
RCPG: "GREAT! So...where can we send an invoice?"
-- seriously, though, who would be the agency responsible for collection of these royalties? ASCAP? BMI? Those 'non-profits' are more corrupt than the labels!!
Might be SoundExchange, who, despite the semi-fair criticisms they receive from webcasters due to their original support of a flat royalty rate, actually do a pretty good job paying out to artists for digital "plays." It's definitely better than nothing.
@Elijah-M:
@TheContrarian:
Sorry, but you're comparing apples to oranges. The United States is not like other Western countries when it comes to radio and television. For starters, we don't have government-owned public broadcasting.
href="#c6417311">owenmeany: Believe it or not, the way radio promotion and mechanical royalties actually work in real life does not bear even the slightest resemblance to what you outlined in your post. Did you rip that scenario directly from an ABC after school special or what?
@Lampbane: You are splitting an incredibly thin hair. The US is very much like other Western countries in one regard: it has a large number of privately owned, for-profit radio stations. Those stations are able to thrive in other countries despite the fact that they actually have to compensate the artists whose music they profit from. Who knew?
Not to mention the fact that over-the-air broadcast licensees are operating on the PUBLIC SPECTRUM.
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