CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Radio legislation ignites royalties battle

This debate has one side seeing green and the other singing the blues.On one side stand the Christian Music Trade Association and such superstars as Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Khan, Tony Bennett, Bono, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Miley Cyrus, Kenny Rogers and Martha Reeves. On the other side stand the National Religious Broadcasters, Christian Broadcasting System Ltd., National Public Radio, CBS Radio, College Broadcasters Inc., National Association of Broadcasters, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and several Hispanic groups, including the Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Alliance for Progress. In the middle perches the Performance Rights Act, legislation that one side calls royalties and the other calls a tax.

Gospelmusicchannel.com said the “debate is shaping up as a battle royale.”

The Performance Rights Act is bipartisan legislation that was introduced in the House in February by Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California and in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Republican Orrin G. Hatch of Utah. It calls for AM and FM radio stations to pay to play, as their satellite, Internet and cable counterparts already do.

The House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is Mr. Conyers, voted 21-9 on the measure last month.

The legislation, among other things, would amend federal copyright law to remove a compensation exemption for AM and FM stations and establish fees that would be paid by commercial stations and noncommercial outlets such as religious, college and public radio.

The purpose of the bill is to provide parity for performers whose music is and has been heard on the radio for decades without compensation, supporters say. Proponents often cite the fact that satellite, Internet and cable broadcasters already pay performance royalties. Performers as disparate as Dionne Warwick, Sheryl Crow and will.i.am back the legislation as individual performers and as members of the group musicFirst.

Some performers point out that in other nations, including England, France, Poland and America’s neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico, performers are paid for airplay.

“Every time I hear one of my recordings played on the radio, it breaks my heart to know that I will not get any compensation,” Miss Reeves told The Washington Times. “The man who sweeps the floor, radio station owners and advertisers are all compensated. Our music is being used for revenue, yet I don’t get one penny. When our records were selling, we got a third of a penny. Now everybody is listening from home [and] we are still not compensated.

“It is important that some of us get paid because some of us don’t have any other income,” said Miss Reeves, who, as the headliner on Motown’s Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, recorded such hits as “Heat Wave,” Dancing in the Street” and “Jimmy Mack.”

Opponents say the Performance Rights Act would hurt religious programming, minority-owned stations and noncommercial stations.

College and high school radio stations say they, too, would be affected adversely.

The chief complaints from opponents are that the legislation would especially hurt small stations, such as the ones that broadcast religious and inspirational music, and cripple an industry that is ailing already.

Supporters want “onerous new music fees that some on Capitol Hill want to strap onto the back of the struggling radio industry,” a spokesman for the National Religious Broadcasters said Wednesday.

The Conyers bill would force the majority of Christian radio stations to pay “a brand-new royalty that has been invented supposedly for the music performers who sing the songs,” said Craig Parshall, senior vice president and general counsel for National Religious Broadcasters. “Those stations with revenue of more than $1.25 million would still face virtually unlimited music-fee rates. All these newly invented fees would be in addition to the other copyright fees stations already have to pay to composers and record labels, and are also in addition to the newly established, exorbitant rates for Web-streaming of music. Meanwhile, Mr. Conyers would limit the maximum rates of NPR-affiliated stations to a mere $1,000. This is a shell game, and if the supporters of this new ‘tax’ on music that is played on radio get their way, Christian radio stations will be the losers.”

Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said his trade organization is trying to educate members of Congress about the “severe economic” implications the legislation would have on the radio industry.

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