It’s Ridiculous Radio Isn’t paying

15

That’s what Rep. Ted Deutch told the House Judiciary Committee Friday. Deutch wants the American Music Fairness Act passed which would require radio stations to pay artists to air their music.

Deutch said, “We expect every other business to pay for their raw materials. Grocery stores pay for produce. Builders pay for lumber. Corporate radio should pay for music But while talk radio stations pay their hosts. Sports radio pays for play-by-play. DJs are paid to entertain, inform, and introduce the songs that bring in listeners. Songwriters are paid for their music and lyrics. The artists singing and musicians playing are not.”

Deutch said the exposure story radio is telling doesn’t cut it. “This isn’t the 1960s.
Every creator knows that “exposure” isn’t how they pay the bills. Technology has changed a lot since the start of AM/FM radio. And we all know that publicity from radio airplay isn’t how an artist breaks out into the mainstream. Most mainstream radio plays a small rotation of hits rather than breaking a wide range of new or indie artists.”

Watch Deutch’s testimony HERE.

15 COMMENTS

  1. And, in turn this move will create even more non-music talk radio know-it-all’s who mostly represent and promote the bad in our society. Most radio stations are getting barely surviving if not running at a loss as the pressure on advertising rates keeps pushing radio income down and overhead costs keep rising. Radio supports the creators of the music and lyrics, the performers should pay the stations for exposure. Just look at the amount of attention record labels give to major market radio stations to play their stuff.

    • FYI Even if your station is all talk, you would still be required to pay a royalty for something they call “incidental music.” So there is no exemption for a talk format. If you read the bill, the main thing it does is convert the digital audio royalty into an audio royalty. They want all audio to be treated the same, digital or analog. Of course everyone knows they are not the same thing.

  2. Let’s be clear that radio DOES pay artists. Radio pays SoundExchange, and SoundExchange pays labels and artists. That’s what the law requires. Big radio companies stream, and the streaming services pay. The “Fairness Act” isn’t fair because it would require radio stations to pay for the same songs twice. Once for streaming, and again for on air. That’s not fair.

  3. just another guy trying to spend someone else’s money and sticking his 2 cents into an area that he has no business doing do. Oh, but he’s a politician and he knows everything

    • Amazon. Think of the thousands of businesses who sell product on Amazon. Amazon benefits, yet Amazon doesn’t pay those businesses jack sh*t.

      • Name any other business that doesn’t pay radio (and other broadcast media) for advertising, marketing and promotion of their good and services. Greed has ruined so many win-win situations.

  4. Rep. Deutch is correct about one thing: technology HAS changed a lot. That being said, for the same price of one album purchased 40 years ago, today’s listeners now consume an “all you can eat buffet” of music. Why should radio stations subsidize THAT?

    • Ted Deutch is a typical congressional money grubbing jackass. Doesn’t he realize radio stations and other over the air broadcast pay high fees to ASCAP, BMI, etc. to distribute to artists? Washington ignorance at its finest. Radio is already taking a beating from internet services which pay nothing. Mr. Deutch, hands off broadcast!

      • ASCAP, BMI, SESAC pay publishers, NOT artists.

        Internet services DO pay, but most have no business model (don’t geofence and can’t sell local ads, like radio), so many of the little guys ignore payment (at their own risk), pay out of pocket, or close up soon enough.

  5. Where’s the NAB? It seems every time they have a chance to defend us from this money grab, they are oddly silent.

    Sure, I’ll be more than happy to pay for the music I air, just as soon as the artist, songwriters, and labels pay for the advertising and promotion they get from my radio station.

  6. What’s unfair is that radio stations are not allowed to charge performers for the airtime. If that was allowed then I’d have no problem paying the fee. Fair is fair Rep Deutsch.

    • The US is the only country in the world that has a federal law that forbids record labels from paying radio stations. If Congress would repeal that law (which ONLY applies to broadcasters, not streamers) they might get somewhere. The labels want it both ways. They want free airplay and they want to get paid.

  7. “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” — Ronald Reagan.

    So, Deutch, don’t meddle with what you don’t know.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here