Music FIRST To Terrestrial Radio – “Don’T Be A Scrooge”
Citing a loophole in the copyright law, Music FIRST points out that the terrestrial radio industry enjoys billions in ad revenue when the very artists that sing the songs get nothing.
The Music FIRST press release states, “Terrestrial radio is the only music platform that enjoys this loophole. Satellite Radio, Internet radio and cable music stations pay a fair performance royalty.” Terrestrial radio pays only for those that listen on-line.
At this time of year, as holiday tunes grace the airwaves, some singers are wondering how to pay their electric bill. Music FIRST seeks a fair royalty that will apply across the board. Terrestrial radio, and the National Association of Broadcasters is fighting the issue calling it an unfair tax. First, a royalty is not a tax, and second, if everyone else is paying the royalty, isn’t terrestrial radio getting special treatment?
Terrestrial radio should pay royalty for the music they play. I would not use Napster when it came out because I thought it was stealing, and it was stealing.
You can’t make one business sector pay and another in the same business sector not pay. That is unfair also.
imho
vaporgold
Yeah!!! Charge the hell out of terrestrial radio. So they can pump out 50 minutes of commercials, and 10 minutes of music. That will improve our sub count even more!!
This organization sounds suspiciously like SoundExchange, which is nothing more than a scam by the major record labels against (primarily) Internet radio.
Radio stations do pay royalties – despite what musicfirst wants you to believe. They pay RIAA fees – which cover songwriters/copyright owners. They don’t currently pay artist royalties for terrestrial stations like web streamers do.
The thing is – just about EVERY radio station streams online…so – they ARE paying performance royalties to the enforcer-like SoundExchange, rendering MusicFirst’s argument mute. They are just trying to squeeze a little more water out of that stone so (Insert your favorite artist here) doesn’t have to struggle through the rest of their life riding around in a Gulfstream 5 when all of their friends have a Gulfstream 6