Last week we told you about an opinion piece writer Sonny Bunch crafted for the Washington Post demanding the radio industry start paying artists for the music it played over the airwaves. Apparently Forbes contributor Christopher Versace didn’t take kindly to that demand and took up some valuable space on the Forbes website to defend radio’s honor. “The story is nothing short of a press release for a coalition of big corporate music interests asking Congress to pass legislation to force radio stations to pay an additional royalty fee every time a song is played on the radio. This is not the first time this tune has been played.”
Versace writes that the fastest way to get to the top of the charts, sell albums and fill concert seats is still by having your music played on radio. “There is little doubt that terrestrial radio and increasingly satellite radio remain crucial elements in the record labels’ sales plans. Even in this hyper digitized world there has yet to be invented a more effective tool for exposing a label’s artists to consumers than broadcast radio. From 50,000 watt powerhouses in cities like Los Angeles to New York to 5,000 watt stations in northwest Texas, radio reaches an estimated 240 million Americans each week.”
What would be the cost of advertising to reach 240 million people on a consistent basis? Versace says one study suggested the number would be nearly $2.4 billion. “That’s a pretty big price tag and if radio stations were forced to pay a fee to play a song, wouldn’t it be fair to charge the record companies a fee in return for the radio airtime used for playing it?”
Versace concludes that the legislation sought by the music corporations would hurt the very musicians they purport to help. “Mandating radio stations pay a royalty for songs played will fill the pockets of multi-millionaire corporate music industry executives that represent the most popular artists.”
Check out the full piece in Forbes HERE
