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WBUF: PSA

It costs a lot of money to run a radio station, and nothing to turn on the radio.
I hope this "Radio tax" realizes that fact.
 
The website is sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) as part of their effort to lobby members of Congress to oppose legislation that would impose a fee on radio stations that play music to (further) compensate artists/groups. To call a royalty performance fee a "tax" is literary slight-of-hand, but the word "tax" is easily understood by most people. Understandably, broadcasting companies large and small are opposed to such legislation. Talk to a musician/artist/performer and you'll hear the other side of the argument. And the hits just keep on comin'... or not.
 
The issue for broadcasters is that performance royalties can cut into their profitability (which is still high for many stations even in this lousy economy, even poorly programmed ones that are little more than iPods with commercials and little value added--although the good ones get better return on investment even if they cost more to run).

Of course, if the performance royalties are set at the same levels per song play as the songwriter royalties our business has been paying for close to 80 years now, it's not all that much added expense, certainly not enough to turn any profitable, well run and well programmed station into a loser. Will it turn any music station into a talker? Will it force any station to go dark and turn in its license? Maube a really marginal station or two will change format and maybe an even more marginal operation which can't hack it will shut down for good. That kind of station wasn't going to last much longer to begin with. The business is better off without them as stronger, better programmed, higher quality operations get more room to thrive (and less trouble with interference). Maybe performance royalties might be a blessing in disguise by weeding out operations destined to fail, leaving the field to serious players.
 
What the performance tax will also do is force homogenized radio to become even moreso. It's not so much the actual royalties that are the problem, it's the RECORDKEEPING that's deadly. Well, not to hard-drive stations like most commercial stations where everything is played off a computer and thus is easy to log. But for a lot of non-commercial stations, and most "college" stations...many with limited professional staff...it'll be deadly trying to keep all the proper logs and reconcile them on a regular basis.
 
it'll be deadly trying to keep all the proper logs and reconcile them on a regular basis.
Click to expand...

Been there, done that!! Not pretty (Performer is easy (duh)...composers create a new data digging chore - though I may say that the process enhanced my knowledge of musical trivia that has yet to pay off in the bar contests ;D
 
"What the performance tax will also do is force homogenized radio to become even moreso. It's not so much the actual royalties that are the problem, it's the RECORDKEEPING that's deadly."

Recordkeeping sure was a pain back in the day when jocks or board ops had to fill out those BMI logs all during a sampling week. But these days a lot of that's done by Soundscan, eliminating the middle man...
 
thank you for the replies.
I have a better understanding on this issue.
(esp. JimsPatrick). Clear, and to the point!

PS:
i learned early, that a station running a particular
ad/promo/even PSA, is doing so, for *some* reason...
and not just out of the goodness of their heart...
 
Heard a "no performance tax" spot on Legends this evening (Sunday 21st), for the first time. I would not be surprised if it's run there for a while and I just hadn't heard it before today.
 
Recordkeeping sure was a pain back in the day when jocks or board ops had to fill out those BMI logs all during a sampling week. But these days a lot of that's done by Soundscan, eliminating the middle man...
Click to expand...

Despite the best efforts of several different companies, NOBODY has yet figured out a system that accurately creates program logs for college radio stations. Most are lucky to even catch 10% of what's played, and usually only 1-5% is actually correct. There's just too much musical diversity for a computer to get it right; it has to be entered by a human. But that means a lot of inaccuracy, just in "time played" to begin with. It also means inaccuracy in tracking the composer since a lot of music doesn't really put the composer/songwriter of a given track in a place that's easy to find. Usually you CAN successfully Google it, but sometimes it's a real PitA to find, and that starts getting to be asking a lot of a college radio DJ that may have limited training or experience.

I think what's more offensive is the hypocrisy than anything; music labels biting the hand that feeds them...claiming there's no value to the promotion radio gives to music on one hand while paying millions in semi-legal payola (via "indies") on the other. But I suppose if you can't take hypocrisy you shouldn't be working in media at all, much less radio! ::)
 
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