Performance Royalty Tax

[TheBigA]

Let me add that the stations aren't stealing the copyright. The labels are sending them this music. It's all voluntary. The radio stations aren't saying THEY made this music. They give full and fair credit to the creators, the artists who are featured on the music. They aren't reselling this music to advertisers, saying the advertisers are getting use of the music in some way. "This song by Michael Jackson is sponsored by Meineke Muffler." That may be how the royalty is handled, although the current draft of the law doesn't give radio that right.

Also, just playing music on the radio doesn't necessarily translate to revenue for the radio station. The fans of Pulse 87 in NY play lots of music, and have very dedicated fans. But that station is on the verge of going off the air for lack of money. Indie 103 in LA was a very popular music based station with very passionate fans. But it flipped formats because they were unable to make enough money. The assumption that the music attracts the revenue, thus the copyright holders deserve a percentage of that revenue is presumptuous.

 

[JIBGUY]

If stations ever have to pay royalties to the labels, then perhaps the labels should also bear the burden of partially financing the expenses of the radio stations, starting with financing the sales departments.

 

[CrankyYankee]

Do I recall Frank Sinatra promoting a form of this royalty "tax" many years ago? Anyone else remember that? As a sort of sidebar, methinks it used to be that folks in Europe had to pay a tax on every blank tape they bought, audio and video, as it was believed that most of those tapes would be used to record copyrighted products and this would provide a bit of recompense.

 

[murphy66]

I would like to address the points made in this thread regarding the politicians "for or against" this tax. As I have said to my friends on countless occasions any decision any politician makes that directly effects the lives of their constituents should be made public to those constituents...so that they will know how the people they elected voted on any number of topics controlling those peoples lives. That being said...let those same politicians remain aware of how they will be treated by the radio stations they count on every single election year when they come crawling on their stomaches to get their message on the air...and take up otherwise valuable advertising time that provides payroll and operating costs for said stations. If they do not see this proposed tax die in legislation then it is up to those directly effected to remove their services from being available to those that caused the tax increase with their vote. I am all for people being "paid" for their work...but we all know none of us are making the money some of these artists are. The more of them that sign exclusive contracts like those being done with Live Nation are generating huge bank for the artists that are joining that list...so do the math and you will see that passing this tax damages those in the lower earning bracket while it only generates pennies if that...for the artists involved. That is my two cents...or if this tax goes into effect...1/3 of one cent. I apologize in advance for any spelling errors...one cup of coffee on no sleep will do that.