7 things the record labels would do if they had any sense

[radioskeptic]

The following appeared on Digital Music News last Wednesday:

7 Things the Majors Would Do Right Now, If They REALLY Had the Balls…
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/101510balls

Readers of this board will be especially interested in suggestions numbers 2 (“Fire Mitch Bainwohl Now, Gut the RIAA”) and 7 (“Forget About Terrestrial Radio Recording Royalties...”)

You see, there is no support for making radio pay public performance royalties to foreign-owned record labels except among a few small groups: (1) the record industry weasels themselves, (2) whatever “artists” they’ve leaned on to support this outrage (remember that virtually no country performers signed that RIAA letter last spring, because they know that they owe their success to radio exposure!), (3) the RIAA and any lobbying law firms that may be doing some auxiliary lobbying on this, and (4) the corrupt politicians of both parties who have been bought off with the legalized graft we laughingly call “campaign contributions.”

Don’t think for a minute that the supposedly favorable terms in the “compromise” that current NAB president and former Senator Gordon Smith has proposed will last. Payments could easily escalate under that arrangement. And the existence of such an arrangement itself, contrary to Smith’s assertions, does not preclude the possibility that radio royalty rates could later end up being set by the Copyright Royalty Board.

Smith is not a broadcaster; he’s a politician in the worst sense of the word. Neither he nor the big radio (and TV) groups who installed him as NAB president care about the interests of smaller radio broadcasters. (And the big boys are deluding themselves if they believe that the present proposal, which they think they could afford without cutting their own scandalously high executive compensation too drastically, will be the end of the royalty struggle.)

The NAB has the muscle to fight this thing (see http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/091010lobbyinfluence, linked in the item linked above), but not the resolve – at least not with Smith at the helm.

What’s needed is an insurrection at the NAB: a recall, or a vote of no confidence in Smith’s leadership, or something of that kind. And if that fails? Then the majority of stations, those not owned by the consolidators, should vote with their feet by leaving the NAB and starting a new organization that would be an effective advocate for real radio broadcasters.

 

[local oscillator]

Skeptic, well said. I dropped my longtime NAB membership a few years ago, and I hope a successor organization comes along sooner than later. One that doesn't want to live in fear of the RIAA, one that doesn't think HD Radio is God's gift to humanity, and one that doesn't think "Radio Heard Here" is great marketing.

 

[Savage]

And an NAB that doesn't have a history of stomping on smaller entrepreneurial radio broadcasters because we don't have the financial resources of Giant Radio Groups - in the Association's perpetual stampede to give the big guys whatever they want, at the expense of local radio owners, if need be.

 

[TheBigA]

The NAB is mainly a TV group. To say that big radio people installed Gordon Smith ignores the facts. CBS only recently returned to the fold, and so they had nothing to do with bringing in Smith. It's more the other way around.

To assume that big radio groups are in favor of this proposal is making a huge mistake. I know of several of the biggest radio groups that are opposed to this proposal, but are standing aside and watching how the other side responds. As long as the sides appear to be talking, Congress will table the law. How long will they wait? How long have the Israelis and Palestinians been talking?

Here's the most basic thing to remember: A house divided among itself will not stand. Broadcasters become weaker by fighting among themselves. What has given the RIAA so much power in the last few years is they have unified artists, labels, and musicians. The recording industry has wanted this royalty for 70 years. The reason they are in a better position now is because Mitch Bainwol came up with a proposal that brought everyone together by giving each of them something. As NARAS President Neil Portnow said at the Grammy Awards last year, "Never before has the music industry been united in this way." That unity makes them a tougher adversary. So broadcasters are making a mistake by turning the NAB into the enemy. The music industry will not agree to the NAB's proposal. Let the music industry do the heavy lifting. No reason for other broadcasters to help them.