• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Lobby Attempts To Link AM Mandate With Royalty Bill

U

umfan

www.insideradio.com

No Royalties, No Radio? Music Lobby Tries To Hitch A Ride On AM Mandate Fight.

The MusicFirst Coalition and tech and auto industry groups are urging lawmakers to delay the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act unless Congress also passes a bill mandating performance royalties
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

I see why the music lobby wants these linked, but there is no logical policy reason to link them. They deal with vastly different issues. Interesting that former VP Al Gore is involved.
 
TheBigA said:
One thing never reported is the Music First Coalition is paid for by the RIAA. So while they often bring up artists, their main interest is getting payment to the major labels, most of which are foreign companies.
Click to expand...
Is there any truly "major" label that is not foreign owned?

What are the American owned labels of significance? Big Loud and....

I did a few searches on independent American owned labels and did not come up with much. You have demonstrated a deep knowledge of the music business, so perhaps you can list the top indies that are not owned by the Big Three.
 
umfan said:
I see why the music lobby wants these linked, but there is no logical policy reason to link them. They deal with vastly different issues.
Click to expand...
It's horse trading. MusicFirst is offering to not oppose the AM radio tuner bill, if radio agrees to stop opposing a performance royalty.
 
TheBigA said:
Warner Music is perhaps the only true domestic label.
Click to expand...

You and DavidEduardo point out something that is very real across many industries; namely, that in many cases, including the record labels, commerce is global. I won't say much about this (because it's tangential to the subject at hand) but the current U.S. Administration is trying its best to decouple the U.S. from all forms of global commerce. If and where it succeeds, it will be to the detriment of all.
 
ted chittenden said:
the current U.S. Administration is trying its best to decouple the U.S. from all forms of global commerce.
Click to expand...

They really don't understand the situation. In terms of music, we're not dealing with physical product anymore. But the money is real. In the music industry the profits are going to France, Germany, and Japan. Spotify is based in Sweden. No tariff can change that.
 
ted chittenden said:
You and DavidEduardo point out something that is very real across many industries; namely, that in many cases, including the record labels, commerce is global. I won't say much about this (because it's tangential to the subject at hand) but the current U.S. Administration is trying its best to decouple the U.S. from all forms of global commerce. If and where it succeeds, it will be to the detriment of all.
Click to expand...
I don't see a detriment to us in the U.S. by getting balance back into tariffs and trade agreements. Whether the way that this is being proceeded with is the right one, there needs to be equal treatment by trade partners.

I had ordered a German car before the issue came up. That car would have paid a 5% import tax (tarif) to come to me. But an American car shipped to Germany would have paid upwards of 25%.

Obviously, my order got cancelled and I bought a similar one that was already here. While at the dealer... and I am gradually getting to radio and ad media... I asked about future plans. They said that the first thing they did when the trade issue came up was cancel all their advertising and promotional activities.

Now that particular dealer, Porsche, does not buy local radio or TV. But they spend a lot in other media locally through the dealership. I have a friend who is with the BMW dealer, and they indicated that some U.S. made models would be the focus of their sales, but all advertising and promotion for the imported models had stopped. One of the two Volkswagen dealers in my market closed last month, as they could neither get new inventory nor pay their debt.

Now, what remains to be seen is whether the U.S. made cars will increase ad budgets. Even there, some models of "big brands" like Ford are made in Mexico or elsewhere outside the U.S. This could all disrupt what is generally the largest local direct revenue source for radio: car dealers.
 
Last edited:
It was pointed out that CPB, which is in a funding battle with the president, negotiates and pays all music royalties for its member stations:

CPB has traditionally negotiated and paid all broadcast and internet music licensing fees on behalf of public television and radio stations as a service to the public media community.
When an American pays their taxes, an average of $1.60 annually is allocated to public media. 10 cents goes to system support, projects that benefit the whole system, such as music licensing, professional development, research and innovation.
Click to expand...

Wonder why MusicFirst isn't commenting on that. If CPB gets defunded, that will throw thousands of radio & TV stations into a quandary.

Public radio stations play a wider range of music than commercial ones.
 
TheBigA said:
It was pointed out that CPB, which is in a funding battle with the president, negotiates and pays all music royalties for its member stations:



Wonder why MusicFirst isn't commenting on that. If CPB gets defunded, that will throw thousands of radio & TV stations into a quandary.

Public radio stations play a wider range of music than commercial ones.
Click to expand...
Perhaps because it has been messaged consistently that the public funding provided is but a small piece of their budgets.
 
Coupling the two issues is curious at best. If the royalties succeed, marginal FM's may start failing. Whereas conservative talkers -- the AM stations a lot of people disparage -- wouldn't take that much of a royalties hit.

If the music royalties legislation can't pass in Congress, by itself, on its own merits, what does that say about it to begin with?
 
boombox4 said:
Coupling the two issues is curious at best. If the royalties succeed, marginal FM's may start failing. Whereas conservative talkers -- the AM stations a lot of people disparage -- wouldn't take that much of a royalties hit.

If the music royalties legislation can't pass in Congress, by itself, on its own merits, what does that say about it to begin with?
Click to expand...
The same thing it says about the dozens of similar marginally related items that special interests get Congress to tack on to bills in order to deliver the votes necessary for passage: It will be part of a law, whether you like the way it got there or not. All part of the legislative game, nothing new about it.
 
CTListener said:
The same thing it says about the dozens of similar marginally related items that special interests get Congress to tack on to bills in order to deliver the votes necessary for passage: It will be part of a law, whether you like the way it got there or not. All part of the legislative game, nothing new about it.
Click to expand...
I understand that part of it. It's just that by itself, the music royalty legislation apparently has no support. The AM bill has or had bilateral support. And if the royalty bill gets passed -- however it passes -- it's going to slam the hammer on a few marginal FM music stations. And maybe some public stations, as Big A mentioned upthread.
 


Back
Top Bottom