Radio Royalty Act Reintroduced

[secondchoice]

In the 1990's there was a service (CDX) that the record companies supported that would mail a CD to your station with all the new country releases. We still carted up the the songs we played. It was Impossible to play two songs back to back off the same CD if the tracks were not beside each other.

Thankfully the computer industry has made huge gains in low cost memory. Now you can put literally thousands songs on a PC.

One thing that always alamazed me was the number of well written and well preformed songs that never were played on the radio.

 

[TheBigA]

One thing that always alamazed me was the number of well written and well preformed songs that never were played on the radio.

That's why record labels needed promotion departments. Now, they feel they just can throw spaghetti at the wall and people will find it.

 

[R.D.P.]

I don't play just the hits only. I also play songs that never charted and/or may not become a hit. Like the Album Rock stations, I play the entire CD, from start to finish. (I tend to skip over songs, in some cases) And yes...I also play those songs that have been largely forgotten about too. I'm much more than just a Hits styled station. Intend to keep it that way for years to come.

Dan <><​

 

[TheBigA]

Like the Album Rock stations, I play the entire CD, from start to finish.​

By the way, if you stream your station, playing an entire album is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You can only play three songs, and not together. Originally, the plan for the broadcast radio royalty had restrictions like that in it. They've gone through a few re-writes. Now all they want is money. Maybe next year, they'll consider negotiating.

 

[R.D.P.]

When I add music, I often space things out, where the same singer won't be heard back to back. Most of what I've been adding lately is of the Compilation Various Artists, Hymns and/or Greatest Hits nature. The new songs are added but only when I can get them.

Dan <><​

 

[TheBigA]

When I add music, I often space things out, where the same singer won't be heard back to back. Most of what I've been adding lately is of the Compilation Various Artists, Hymns and/or Greatest Hits nature. The new songs are added but only when I can get them.​

They also have rules about playing compilation albums and greatest hits. They have lots of rules about how they want you to play music. And they also want you to pay for it, as you help promote their artists and their songs with airplay.

 

[R.D.P.]

Well sir, I pay the big three firms every year, to keep the music playing and most of what I play is purchased out of my own pocket. I hardly ever get any free CD's to play. In most cases, I have to beg and plead just to get a few for airplay.​

Dan <><

 

[TheBigA]

I was recently at a music conference where a rep from the music industry brought up this royalty, and told the audience how the big radio companies like iHeart are cheating musicians out of money that is due to them, and how every other country in the free world has this royalty except us. What he failed to say is that the music industry refuses to negotiate the terms of this new royalty. They want to hand over the text of a law to congress, and have the congress force the will of the music industry on radio stations. They won't even allow the congress to negotiate the terms of the royalty. It's "our way or the highway." That's what they want. And they've held to that for 20 years. Every two years, they resubmit their law to congress, and every year they tell everyone that they've made their law even easier for small stations. It doesn't matter. They could have been collecting a royalty for 15 years if they had just accepted the offer they got from the NAB. But they refused.

Two years ago, the music industry hired Joe Crowley, a former congressman from NY, to be their spokesman and get this royalty passed. If you search his name, you'll find lots of articles where he pushed this royalty as hard as he could. It didn't work, and Joe Crowley was not hired for this version of the law.

 

[TheBigA]

SoundExchange, the company that collects streaming royalties, is auditing a lot of major radio companies. This is what companies can look forward to if the broadcast royalty is added:

Seven Radio Groups Face SoundExchange Streaming Audits.

Each year SoundExchange selects a group of companies to determine whether its royalty collection procedures are working as designed. This year, the Copyright Royalty Board has disclosed that SoundExchange will

www.insideradio.com

 

[TheBigA]

The Senate has introduced a version of the anti-royalty resolution:

Effort To Block Radio Royalty Expands To Senate.

As the number of House members signing onto the Local Radio Freedom Act continues to climb, there is now a companion resolution in the Senate. Both are an effort to

www.insideradio.com

Introduced by senators from Wyoming and New Hampshire. The article says there are more repubs than dems in favor of this. No surprise. The music industry states tend to be blue.

 

[ted chittenden]

They also have rules about playing compilation albums and greatest hits. They have lots of rules about how they want you to play music. And they also want you to pay for it, as you help promote their artists and their songs with airplay.

What's funny is that, as far as I know, no radio station has ever been sued for DMCA violations of this sort. Some stations, particularly in the noncommercial sector, will still play full albums--but they get written permission from the labels before they do it. I also remember that a deal was made between commercial broadcasters and the RIAA, I think around 2010, where stations could play "rock blocks" of four or more songs as long as they didn't play entire albums.

In other words, getting the DMCA money is more important than actually forcing stations to follow the law to the letter in other areas.

 

[ted chittenden]

How far the new House bill goes will depend on two things: 1) the position of the current Federal Administration on the matter; and 2) who can provide more money for their side of the argument.

 

[umfan]

Radio Message To Lawmakers: Don’t Upend ‘Free Airplay For Free Promotion’ Model.

North Carolina broadcaster Henry Hinton will carry the radio industry’s royalty message to Capitol Hill today. He plans to warn lawmakers a new performance royalty would be “economically untenable” for

www.insideradio.com

Proposed royalties will be discussed on Capitol Hill this week. I hope Congress gets the message that a change like this will significantly alter broadcast radio.

 

[TheBigA]

To me the interesting part of this senate hearing was the title:

Balancing the Interests of Local Radio, Songwriters and Performers in the Digital Age.

Broadcast radio isn't digital. So while it's important to discuss the interests of artists and songwriters in the digital age, radio isn't part of that problem. That's why broadcast radio doesn't pay the royalty. The music industry doesn't see the difference between broadcast radio and digital streaming. Broadcasters know the difference. They have to pay a music royalty to labels and artists for streaming, and they don't for broadcasting.

The reason goes back to a court case in the 1930s. Paul Whiteman vs. WNEW. The radio station was playing recordings by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Whiteman tried to stop them. The case was decided in favor of the radio station because the recording was the property of the station, and playing a record on the radio didn't create a copy of that song, the basis of copyright. But digital media is different. So until broadcasting becomes digital, there is no need for a broadcast radio royalty.

Judge Learned Hand determined that neither Whiteman nor RCA held a right to license the recordings for broadcast. Because playing a recording over radio was not believed to reproduce the copyrighted work, made tangible at that time only by written sheet music, the court reasoned that no copyright provision could have been violated by airplay.

 

[davideduardo]

... and how every other country in the free world has this royalty except us.

Which is a lie. I know of a number of countries where there is either no royalty or a minimal flat royalty for the record companies and their artists.