Categorized | Entertainment, Music
Save Your Radio
by kellygrrrl
Posted on 10 November 2009 | 8:20 pm 
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Do you love your radio stations – the music, news and traffic? Do you love getting your music for FREE? It’s all in danger! Everything you love about your radio station could be a thing of the past!
There are bills before congress that threaten free music on the radio. The foreign owned record companies and misinformed artists want congress to establish a tax where stations would pay for the right to play music on the radio. This additional tax would change radio and put music radio stations in danger of going silent.
For generations, Americans have loved listening to their favorite radio station. In addition to playing music, radio stations offer valued services to the local community such as emergency alerts about weather or natural disasters, raise money for charities, and sponsor local community events. However, the major record companies want local radio stations to pay for the music we provide to listeners like yourself free of charge. They are spending millions lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would establish a performance tax for music played over the radio. These bills, S. 379 & H.R. 848 would devastate local radio stations across the country. However, even more importantly, the bills would negatively impact communities and local listeners.
Radio stations currently pay about $550 million a year to music licensing agencies that represent songwriters and music publishers. They also paid $25.2 million last year in regulatory fees to the Federal Communications Commission.
The battle between the record companies and the radio industry is heating up. With radio industry claiming they promote the recording industry, and the recording industry claiming they promote the radio industry, seems we’re at a chicken/egg argument.
Record companies and radio stations are battling over a legislative proposal, called the Performance Rights Act, that would require broadcasters to pay royalties to air recorded music.
A showdown appears inevitable, possibly by year’s end, after the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared the bill last week. The House Judiciary Committee approved a similar bill in May. That’s the furthest advocates of the proposal have gotten after decades of attempts to change the law.
If the bill passes, it could force stations to pay about $500 million a year — some estimates go as high as $1 billion. The actual amount would be determined by the federal Copyright Royalty Board.
Prospects for a compromise look bleak. The record companies want the change because they’re “running out of money,” National Association of Broadcasters board Chairman Steve Newberry says. “When you start with that basis, it’s very difficult to engage in good-faith negotiations.”
“If you use somebody’s work to make a buck, you should compensate them for it,” says Martin Machowsky, spokesman for the MusicFirst Coalition. The group is backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, and performers including Alanis Morissette, Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z andWill.i.am.
Your radio station needs your help! By signing this petition and sending an e-mail to congress you are telling congress NOT to pass this tax on radio stations.
Speaking as an over-simplified non-expert, can I just say: HELLOOOOOOOO!
They need each other. They’ve always known that in the past. The recording industry needs to accept the reality that radio is the least of their problems. 
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213,279 Comments Since March 2009 
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Signed the petition, Kel. Will have to talk to my great nephew about this, get his take. Good post.
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Rupey wants to charge for internet use — guess he’s got to recoup the loss of all those sponsors somehow.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/rupert-murdoch-wants-charge-inter net-se
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I like my Sirius/XM radio way more than commercial “free” radio. I don’t mind paying for something worth listening to and my lifetime memebership only cost $300 for two radios so it’s not all that expensive.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am
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my new car is the first time I’ve had Sirius, and I’m loving it! The genre-sepcific commercial-free music is awesome.
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i only listen to NPR….
haven’t listened to “mainstream” radio stations in nearly 10 years…..the dj’s annoy the shit out of me…..
if there’s a song or artist i like, i buy the cd….
November 11th, 2009 at 10:03 am
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I only listen to Pacifica or NPR. I agree. I’ve found like exeye said that by the time music gets on the radio, it’s already commercially popular. Radio isn’t really a trend setter in music anymore.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:11 am
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that is so true. my kids introduce me to great new artists and songs all the time, and it seems to take nearly 6 months for that music to make it to mainstream radio
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The music industry used constantly break and promote new talent of all genres. Now, they focus most of their energy on the most “commercial” artists, and squeeze every cent they can get out of them by making people pay to listen to them, view them, or buy their (overpriced) CD’s. This has forced radio stations, and MTV/VH1 to become, in essence, “top ten” stations. This lack of variety forces people to look elsewhere for said variety, and where they find this music – the internet – they usually find a way to download it free.
Digital radio could be a saviour. There’s already a system whereby you can tag a song you hear that you like, and purchase it, direct from your receiver. If more artists and groups explored this avenue, it could cut out at least some of the myriad middle-men, and make radio a paying proposition again.
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The big reocording corporations need to recapture some revenue because they have lost a bunch to the indies, to the ability to download a single song or three instead of a full CD/Album, and to those who swap files. In some ways they are dinosaurs drowning in their own hubris.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
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Agreed. Crying all the way to the poor house. They need to embrace the technology and think of new ways to make money off of music. They need to find things that they can sell consumers that no one else can.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
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I don’t know about if they have a future or not. It gets easier and easier for a band to record and market independently. It is the promotion that is tough to access. Seems the media companies are seeking a tax for the one item where they have an advantage.
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let’s get the thRush Hour and Christian radio fans onboard.
How’s that for Bipartisanship?
hey, if the Clintons and Obama can do it, so can we
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There was a time when radio made music stars. Hopefully it will be realized that artists and radio do need each other, like you said.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
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It’s Kelly……..
November 10th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
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I must have been thinking of the comment, and Curse the Tiny iPhone Keys!!
November 10th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
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No problem, honest mistake…..
November 10th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
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the iThingy curse strikes in mysterious ways. I’m really considering the iTablet … would be awesome if they’d put the damn phone on it
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Radio stations have to pay a royalty for every song they play, if that song is not in the public domain. That money goes to ASCAP etc, which is distributed to the artists and record companies.
Seems unfair, and rather stupid, to make them pay an additional royalty
November 10th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
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Radio stations currently pay about $550 million a year to music licensing agencies that represent songwriters and music publishers. They also paid $25.2 million last year in regulatory fees to the Federal Communications Commission.
if the recording industry really wants to attack their problem, they should look to the internet. just my opinion, but seems obvious
November 10th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
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It is rather weird. Now I haven’t worked in the music industry since the mid-80’s; but for sure, music industry folks had their promo people literally falling all over the radio stations to give their artists play time. The promo guy was usually one of the highest paid bullshitters on the record company’s payroll. It was THAT important to get their songs aired.
One was never supposed to know which stations were being monitored for the ASCAP or BMI writer royalties, so that the promoters wouldn’t zero in on a particular one to wine and dine. From there, the monitored findings were converted into some type of formula in order to pay the quarterly royalties to the songwriters.
From there, the more airplay the artist got, the more albums were sold, and therefore, the mechanical royalties came into play. That is where the actual artist and record company made their money.
Maybe things are different now. I don’t know. I am way out of the loop now on that.
Sounds like the record companies think they don’t need “old fashioned” radio anymore, since the advent of the internets and Itunes.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
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the internets are the real financial problem for the recording industry.
this whole thing seems insane. radio is still the best way to promote a song/artist and send people out to buy it.
it’s the free download sites that are the problem. at least itunes brings money to the artist.
I’m just shocked that the recording/artist group is seemingly so shortsighted and desperate to go this route
November 10th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
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The recording industry, much like the newspaper industry, is a dinosaur adhering to archaic ways of doing business. Not being tech savvy will be their downfall.
There is no way to stop the internet, really…
November 10th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
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agreed … but truth be told, it saddens me to think of all the great writers and musicians working for free in both journalism and music
the internet took off so fast, and the shortsightedness of many in their rush to get exposure has backfired.
I used to dream of being a journalist/writer, and now I see that is a hobby.
I’m seeing the same with my son’s passion and commitment and talent for music
November 10th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
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I’m an engineer and geologist and not a musician for that same reason…