When people buy CDs, the record companies and the licensing companies are supposed to pay royalties to the artists. In addition, radio stations pay blanket license fees to BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC to air CDs, money that is supposed to end up in the artists’ pockets. But now, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is trying to levy a new performance tax on radio stations, and Congress is currently debating the issue. WCLV in Cleveland is asking its listeners to write to their members of Congress.
This is the copy that’s running on WCLV:
WCLV needs your help. And we need it now.
I’m Robert Conrad, president of WCLV. The House Judiciary Committee recently held hearings on the newly reintroduced “Performance Rights Act” (H.R. 848), otherwise known as the “Performance Tax”. If enacted, the bill would require WCLV and other broadcasters to pay a royalty for all the recorded music we play on the radio. This money would go the record companies, most of whom are foreign owned. This would be in addition to the royalty payments we already pay to composers and publishers and to record companies for the right to broadcast our music on the Internet. The financial impact of this performance tax could be financially devastating at a time when the advertising that supports WCLV and its classical music programming is at an all time low due to the recession.
We ask you to write your representative in support of an opposing resolution, the “Local Radio Freedom Act” (HCR 49), was introduced recently. You’ll find a sample letter on our website. Click on the banner on the home page or on the links on every page at wclv.com. Help WCLV and other broadcasters. Express your support of the Local Radio Freedom Act. And please – do it today. Thank you.
Radio stations have a symbiotic relationship with the artists. Classical radio is the number one way people hear about recordings and artists. Those of us in radio help the artists sell their CDs and downloads. We help them sell concert tickets and we make sure that our multiple millions of listeners find out about the artists and hear their work. If they had to pay us for all the promotion we give them, many couldn’t afford the air time. And if we had to pay them more than we already do — in the form of this performance tax — we would go out of business. Only a handful of superstars are getting rich in this business. The rest of us on both sides of the equation are lucky to make a living wage.
The Performance Tax will upset a very delicate balance. Please tell your congresspeople to vote no.
Thanks!
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This is the first time I have seen anyone stick up for Radio’s side of this issue. By “radio”, I mean every from of transmission, terrestrial, satellite, and, my favorite, web streaming.
Take a look at AccuRadio, Live365, all of Pubradio, whatever one would like. There are a reputed 170 million internet listeners. Add satellite’s 19 million and gosh knows how many terrestrial listeners, the last alleged to listen only in their cars.
I bought Michael Gordon’s “Decasia” direct from Bang On a Can in mp3 because I heard it on wnyc2. I bought the Who’s”Thiry Years of Maximum R&B” in mp3 at Amazon because I heard it on WAXQ, New York, while, yes, in the car. I bought Charlemagen Palestine’s work in mp3 at Amazon because I heard it on Kyle Gann’s PostClassic at Live365. And, last, I bought Ken Field and The Revolutionary Snake EDnsemble’s neuvo-Dixieland “Year of the Snake because I heard it on one of Innova.mu’s streams, again at Live365. Those are four purchases I can think of without looking in my music library.
These are the folks who are threatened by all of this royalty ca-ca.
So, Marty, thanks for having the guts for telling it like it is. Maybe some other folks who read you guys will be industry people.
>>RSM
I am barely computer literate but would write about that odious tax. I would print out the letter but you say click on the banner and I don’t see any banner. help.
Hi Pat,
Here’s the link: http://www.wclv.com/page.php?pageID=563.
You can copy that and paste it in the search box at the top of your screen and that will take you to the right page.
Thanks!
Marty
How is paying for the performance of a musical composition a tax? Is paying ASCAP and BMI for the intellectual property rights of the song itself a tax also?
How about when an advertiser pays for the playing of a commercial. Is that a “marketing tax?”
I know, but for some reason that’s what people in the biz are calling it. It’s not really a tax; it’s a residual, or a royalty.
I have such mixed feelings about the whole performance rights issue. I’m 100% FOR the musicians being able to make a living at what they do, but I’ve worked for many years in radio and I believe that this could kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Small radio stations are right on the edge, and if they go silent, not only will the musicians not get their royalties, but they won’t get their music played on the air at all.
Not only that, but the Eastern European Orchestras and Yo-Yo Ma will get the lion’s share of royalties. You should see the playlists of these stations. It might be surprising how many artists are barely played at all.
And the stations are playing old, old CDs, where in many cases it’s impossible for the payers to find the payees in order to pay them! It’s a mess.