wax&wires

Bill Backs Payment To Musicians For Radio Play

Songwriters get paid every time one of their songs is played on the radio; the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 4789) would do the same for the musicians who played on the recording. With income from CDs and download sales on the wane, they could use the money.

Under current law, musicians get a big fat zero when their music is played on AM and FM radio (they do get royalties from satellite radio, cable radio services, and other nonterrestrial broadcasters).

According to Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the United States is one of the few industrialized countries (with the exception of Iran, China, and North Korea) that does not compensate artists and performers for airplay. I heard her yesterday on Air America radio talking about the bill.

Read the full story.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 11:36 pm. It is filed under wax and tagged with artist rights, law, radio, royalties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.