Does Congress Hate Music?

Wow.  It’s a rapidly shifting landscape in Congress, but this is the kind of thing that’s coming out.   From the NEA:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds in the economic stimulus bill from going to museums, theaters, arts centers, for renovations, construction or salaries, in a list of others including casinos, golf courses, stadiums, and aquariums.  

The language of the amendment, (Amendment No. 175, as filed) is, “None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas.”

And classical radio is in mortal danger if Congress gets duped by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).  From Peter H. Smyth, chairman and CEO of Greater Media:

The Performance Tax has once again reared its ugly head and the RIAA and its allies are preparing to introduce legislation in Congress that could, realistically, cost the radio industry between $400 million and $7 billion per year.

There will be claims that this is a question of fairness and the money is needed to help recording artists.  The fact is 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.

For the past 80 years, the relationship between the music industry and radio has been mutually profitable for both industries, providing limitless on-air promotional exposure of artists’ music at absolutely no cost.  Radio has profited as well with access to great recorded musical content and we have been a willing partner in creating highly profitable careers for a long roster of artists in all music genres.  Radio has been and continues to be the prime driver that puts people in concert seats and motivates them to buy music, whether it is at iTunes, Amazon or a brick and mortar store.   Radio will continue to be the best possible channel for widespread distribution of music in a cost-effective and profitable fashion for some time to come.

Right now, with a new Congress in Washington and a new administration taking over, the RIAA has undertaken a major new push to upset this bargain and strike a new, more favorable one for themselves – one in which radio pays a high price for the “privilege” of promoting the recording industry to our listeners – and they intend to use the legislative process to do so.

Take a moment today to write or call your Congressional Representative’s office.  Ask them to co-sponsor the “Local Radio Freedom Act” (H. Con. Res. 244)

We have to be ever vigilant to make sure Congress can’t, with the stroke of a pen, destroy our entire industry. It won’t help recording artists one bit if the RIAA bankrupts the stations. And in the classical realm, believe me, the stations are not getting rich off the artists’ music.