Give the Drummer Some (and the background singers, and guitarist, and the man that dings the triangle, and the woman that plays the tamborine…)
For those of you who claim that I don’t criticize Democrats on this blog, here’s something for you. Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced legislation called the Performance Rights Act (HR-848). This legislation, if passed, would require radio stations to pay a performance fee to everyone who performs on a song played on the radio. EVERYONE! That means everyone from the singers to background vocalist to the drummer to the guy who plays the little triangle would be entitled to payment from radio stations. Proponents of the bill claim they simply want to level the playing field in which digital services (internet, satellite) already pay the fee while broadcast radio does not. Opponents say that this could at best force radio stations to avoid introducing new music as they will not want to pay for unproven artists, and at worst force smaller radio stations that don’t make a huge profit (namely R&B and Gospel formats) out of business completely. Further, they argue that 50% of these “performance royalties” would go to the record labels, not the artists. See where this is going?
This isn’t about the artists at all, but the mega record corporations. Labels which have been losing money hand over fist for years to downloading and other digital media. Essentially, this is their way of punishing radio listeners, and Conyers is playing the hatchet man (and probably getting paid for it). It’s also part of the labels’ continuing effort to stifle music creativity to only a few established genres and artist so they can keep producing the same cookie-cutter crap that passes for music today. Strangely enough, I see the record industry moving along the same path as the auto industry. Keep making crap that the public isn’t buying anymore, and get the government to bail you out when you get into trouble. I can imagine that a music industry bailout won’t be far behind. We can probably look for Conyers’ hand in that as well.
Proposed Performance Tax Could Be Black Radio’s Death Knell
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_state_of_black_america_news/9299/1
