it's unfair for U.S. radio to be exempted from paying a performance royalty.

[davideduardo]

Each country has its own regulations, but in general artists are not getting performance royalties... the labels are.

So assuming the MusicFirst claim is correct, how would US artists get its share of foreign royalties if the US had a performance royalty?

The rights payments in other countries are given to the record label association. In theory, if a Peruvian or Nigerian or Sudanese label has an affiliation agreement with a US label through which it produces, let's say, 9 Inch Nails product in those countries, a portion of the royalties should go back to the label which provided the masters and that label, in turn, should give a portion of the royalties to the artist.

Having US radio stations pay royalties has nothing to do with royalty payments to label affiliates in other countries for airplay in other countries.

 

[davideduardo]

"So assuming the MusicFirst claim is correct, how would US artists get its share of foreign royalties if the US had a performance royalty?"

They already get them from abroad, they now want radio stations to pay them in the USA which till now has not been done. German, French, Brazillian etc radio stations have been paying the labels (so called neighboring rights or performance rights) for years.

Your assumption is that the payments in other countries somehow filter down to the artists.

Of course, the percentage of airplay of US artists in those countries vs. total on-air hours of all radio stations is quite small... so not much money comes in.