Wants broadcasters to begin paying royalties like everyone else.
The music industry is getting increasingly desperate these days. Proof lies in the fact that it’s ramped up its efforts to get terrestrial radio broadcasters to pay the same amount in royalties that their brethren do on internet and satellite radio.
For radio has long enjoyed an odd exception under federal copyright law that requires it only to compensate songwriters and publishers, but not the musicians themselves. After going after mothers, children , disabled veterans, and even the deceased, I guess it was only a matter of time before its lawyers sought ought fresh targets.
With the latest revenue target in mind, a group called musicFirst, representing the recording industry, recently sent the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) a can of herring, a dictionary, and some free digital songs in an attempt to mock the group and highlight its fight to make them pay an equal amount in royalties as everyone else.
“It’s a form of piracy, if you will, but not in the classic sense as we think of it,” said Martin Machowsky, a musicFirst spokesman. “Today we gifted them a can of herring, about their argument that they provide promotional value. We think that’s a red herring. Nobody listens to the radio for the commercials.”
What’s particularly funny in all of this is that seems to be a case of reverse payola and shows just how out of touch the music industry is these days. It used to pay radio stations to get bands some exposure and now it wants to make them pay to expose their bands?
Oh my has the recording industry lost its mind.
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
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are any of you folks actually in radio? just curious. are any of you actually working (as in earning a living) professional musicians? again, just curious. I am and have been both ... can see both sides of the debate ... and wish for the entire performance royalty issue revisited in a different light. Currently, terrestrial radio pays both the publisher/songwriter royalty and the performer royalty if they stream online. Currently, independent musicians can earn their performance royalty if they sign up to be compensated w/ SoundExhange. However, unless an "indie" is registered with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC, they will not receive a songwriter royalty. It's an interesting issue, one that I research daily it seems.
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