Royalties....

[Seamless82]

I've been following Sirius / XM for a while now, but one thing I don't really understand is the royalties issue.

Why does terrestrial radio get away without paying for royalties but Sirius and XM do not?

And how does HD radio effect royalties?

[Dlite]

Terrestrial radio's "logic" is that they don't need to pay royalties since they are promoting the artists. The artists and RIAA see it differently, which is why they are in favor of the merger.

[Seamless82]

So I guess Sirius and XM do not promote the artists?

[zcurzan]

No, didn't you get the memo. We are the wing of radio entertainment designated to shoulder the burden of royalties, technological development, and minority ownership.

We are the new guy at the office. All the work get's passed to us, and when we prove ourselves, everyone else wants a piece of the pie.

Now, terrestrial radio wants to start a subscription service. You can bet they still won't want to pay royalties.



The era of "discovering bands" via the local radio is long gone. It went out the window with 3 Top-40 hits stations in the same market. I just don't see how the industry hasn't risen up in outrage about this abuse of a longstanding relationship that stopped serving its purpose decades ago.