More than 200 musicians and songwriters lobbied Congress on Thursday
to pass legislation that would make terrestrial radio broadcasters pay
performance royalties when their songs are aired.
The
proposal, co-sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Brentwood, is a
priority for the Recording Academy, whose members say such a law would
bring the U.S. more into line with the rest of the world, keep pace with
changes in the technology of music consumption and fairly compensate
artists whenever AM or FM radio plays their songs.
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“Their
product is still being used as a product that an entity profits from
— they’re making money on it — but the individual that created that
product doesn’t get any share of that,” Blackburn said Thursday.
Blackburn
and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., are sponsoring the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, which would end the practice among AM and FM radio stations of not
paying royalties to artists and labels, based on the premise that radio
play is a form of promotion and drives record sales.
George Flanigen, chairman emeritus of the Recording Academy,
was among the musicians and songwriters who fanned out across Capitol
Hill on Thursday to meet with lawmakers and press them to support the
legislation. He said the old model no longer works in the modern world
of satellite radio and Internet streaming.
“We’re going
to lose that creative niche in our society of songwriters,” Flanigen
said after a meeting with Blackburn. “Those people who wrote songs (for
someone else to perform) did nothing but write songs. The artists are
making their living on the road, but now the songwriter is making next
to nothing. It could make the songwriter extinct.”
The
legislation was introduced last year. Blackburn said she and Nadler
continue to lobby the House Judiciary Committee for a vote.
“The
support has grown over the last several years … and people see this as
an intellectual property issue and the right for a creator to be paid,”
she said.
But the proposal is strongly opposed by the National Association of Broadcasters. It calls the idea a performance tax that
would financially burden local radio stations, which still reach 265
million Americans a week.
“It is disappointing that this
bill retreads years-old policy positions rather than advancing the
copyright dialogue through policies that help grow the entire music
ecosystem,” NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis
Wharton said when the bill was introduced.
Instead, the
broadcasters are advocating for legislation that would prohibit payment
of royalties by broadcast radio stations. It's picked up 225 co-sponsors
in the U.S. House.
Flanigen said the Fair Play Fair Pay
Act, with 30 House cosponsors, includes
protections for small radio
stations. College stations and nonprofits would pay only $100 a year,
and stations with less than $1 million in annual profits would pay $500 a
year.
Blackburn said she's also willing to consider phasing in the
royalties on commercial stations over several years to ease the
financial burden.
“We don’t want to put anybody out of business at all,” Flanigen said. “We just want fair pay.”
The
legislation also would require all forms of radio, regardless of
format, to pay fair market value for the music they play, ending what
Nadler and Blackburn say are unfair, illogical distortions in effect. It
also would close a copyright loophole that prevents digital services
from paying artists and labels a royalty for songs recorded before 1972.
Troyan, Mary. "Music Industry Lobbies Congress on Royalties." Tennessean
Washington Bureau. April 14, 2016. Accessed April 14, 2016. http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/14/music-industry-lobbies-congress-royalties/83045200/.
