In his exclusive interview with Radio-Info.com, the NAB's Dennis Wharton said, “You can’t take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the radio industry without ramifications.”
In point of fact, hundreds of millions HAVE been taken out of radio, and there HAVE been ramifications. There is no need to imagine the ramifications, they're right in front of us.
There are two main problems with the Performance Tax: (1) It creates a new royalty without providing a way to pay for it, and (2) It is basing the royalty on the same faulty system that is currently bankrupting internet radio. If the RIAA would sit down with the songwriters, PROs, and publishers and work out a way of paying labels out of the existing performance royalty, I doubt anyone in radio would object. But that route has been taken, and the writers don't want to share their royalty money with record labels. So why should radio?
In point of fact, hundreds of millions HAVE been taken out of radio, and there HAVE been ramifications. There is no need to imagine the ramifications, they're right in front of us.
There are two main problems with the Performance Tax: (1) It creates a new royalty without providing a way to pay for it, and (2) It is basing the royalty on the same faulty system that is currently bankrupting internet radio. If the RIAA would sit down with the songwriters, PROs, and publishers and work out a way of paying labels out of the existing performance royalty, I doubt anyone in radio would object. But that route has been taken, and the writers don't want to share their royalty money with record labels. So why should radio?