Return Of The Performance Rights Act

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: Return Of The Performance Rights Act : February 4, 2009 | FMQB : ------------------------------------- : U.S. lawmakers have reintroduced the Performance Rights Act, which would add an additional royalty payment for songs played on the air by radio broadcasters. The bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate today by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Bob Corker (R-TN) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA); and in the House by Representative John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Jane Harman (D-CA), John Shadegg (R-AZ), and Paul Hodes (D-NH). : AFTRA has released a statement lending its support to the bill. "Recording artists fuel the business that sustains radio in the U.S.," said AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth. "All other advanced nations recognize artists' value to terrestrial radio, except the United States. The U.S. recognizes a performance right for artists on all other platforms, including satellite radio, Internet webcast radio, and cable radio channels. The federal government now has an opportunity to correct this final area of inequity - terrestrial radio in the U.S. - by creating a performance right for all recording artists to receive fair compensation for the value they bring to the American airwaves and our culture as a whole." : "Today marks the beginning of the end for corporate radio's loophole," stated Jennifer Bendall, executive director of musicFIRST. "It's unfair, unjustified and un-American that artists and musicians are paid absolutely nothing when their recordings are played on AM and FM radio. Music is their work, their livelihood. They deserve fair pay for air play. Artists and musicians across America thank Senator Leahy, Representative Conyers and their colleagues for introducing bills that will close the corporate radio loophole." : A2IM President Rich Bengloff also chimed in with a statement, saying, "A2IM would like to thank Senator Leahy and Representative Conyers, as well as their co-sponsoring colleagues, as true friends of the music community who understand that creators of music and those that invest in its creation should be compensated for their work. As the manufacturing and service industries have moved offshore, the need to support those in the United States who create intellectual property has never been more important to our economy!" : Earlier this week, Greater Media Chairman/CEO Peter Smyth wrote in his "From the Corner Office" column that "the record companies - not individual artists - will be the primary beneficiaries of a performance tax on radio. The same companies who denied, resisted and ultimately blew their business in the transition to digital delivery now want to dig into the pockets of radio to save their skins." He also called the proposed royalty "a direct economic threat that can be more damaging to our future than anything the economy has handed us so far. A direct tax on radio's already-suffering profitability would force a wholesale rethinking of our station's formats, our staffing, our ability to contribute to our communities, and how we run our business. It is a disruption that should never be considered, especially in this time of economic uncertainty."

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