p2pnet - rss feed: RIAA goes after terrestrial radio
p2pnet.net news:- More money! More money! More money! The cry echoes loudly and continually throughout the hallowed halls of the corporate music industry.
First it was Napster; then it was Internet radio; then it was little girls, grandmothers, and dead people, posts Sierra Pete on slashdot, going on:
But now our friends at the RIAA are going decidedly low-tech. The LA Times reports that the RIAA wants royalties from radio stations. 70 years ago Congress exempted radio stations from paying royalties to performers and labels because radio helps sell music. But since the labels that make up the RIAA are not getting the cash they desire through sales of CDs, and since Internet and satellite broadcasters are forced to cough up cash to their racket, now the RIAA wants terrestrial radio to pay up as well.
As things stand, stations pay royalties to composers and publishers when they play their songs, says the Los Angeles Times, “But they enjoy a federal exemption when paying the performers and record labels because, they argue, the airplay sells music.”
But Hey! - say Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG. Hold on a minute!
They and “several artists’ groups” are poised to rush Congress to repeal the exemption, “a move that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in new royalties,” says the LA Times, continuing, “Mary Wilson, who with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard formed the original Supremes, said the exemption was unfair and forced older musicians to continue touring to pay their bills.”
The decision to take on the “volatile performance royalty issue again” highlights “the rough times the music industry is facing as listeners abandon compact discs for digital downloads, often listening to music shared with friends or obtained from file-sharing sites,” says the story.
If the labels and other sectors of the corporate music industry were to start treating their customers with respect instead of as criminals ready to rip them off at every opportunity, things might be different.
Meanwhile, groups wanting the change include the RIAA, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the American Federation of Musicians and other organizations, the LA Times goes on, also pointing out the US Copyright Office supports removing the exemption.
And, “The groups have a major ally,” it says, namely, Hollywood Howard Berman, “who now chairs the House subcommittee dealing with intellectual property law”.
It seems Berman is “actively contemplating” leading a legislative push to end the exemption.
Also See:
slashdot - RIAA Seeks Royalties From Radio, May 2, 2007
Los Angeles Times - Artists and labels seek royalties from radio, May 21, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Conventional radio stations should have to pay the same rates as Internet radio stations. If conventional radio stations have to pay the same exorbitant royalties, then that would mean several things:
1. Radio stations will have to charge advertisers an expensive rate which will possibly reduce advertising. This will make things more pleasant for those who still listen to conventional radio.
2. Radio stations will have to raise the ratio of advertising to music play which will reduce the number of listeners. This will drive listeners to alternative sources of music.
3. Radio stations will say, “Screw the royalties.” and play royalty free independent music. This will be the best result, and it will give more deserving artists promotion. Best of all, this scenario will cause the corporate media cartel to lose market share and hopefully disappear.
Yes, this is the best news I have heard in a long time. The corporate media cartel is about to shoot itself in the foot with a cannon. Please, media cartel, JACK UP THOSE RATES
cyberscan
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:20 pm
The RIAA is like a rabid dog, snapping and biting at anything within range. It give lie to the idea they know their day is coming and it is the last gasps of a dieing organization to try to get all the money it can while it tries to hold the sands of progress slipping through its fingers.
There was one time long ago when you could here all the new music from new groups you could wish for on terrestrial radio. Commercialization and payolla have destroyed the format, rendering it into a constant replay where the music is there to support ads and not the other way around. ClearChannel has purchased all it can of the landscape and no longer is the local radio station for the locals. It’s now the big corporation cash cow.
No longer can you find new music on the radio, as it just comes out seeking exposure. If the artists haven’t sold their soul to big corporations then they are not going to get air time.
Combine this with the made group, the computer software picked “hit” and the lack of artists that know their craft and the whole thing has gone down the tubes. You no longer hear of record after record that comes out with people standing in line to buy before the opening day of sales. Simply the magic isn’t there anymore. It is reflected in the continual drop in sales and the belief that music no longer has the value it once held by the public.
People left AM radio and the wasteland it had become for FM where you could find stereo, lack of static, choice, new groups, and far less commercialization in the form of ads. FM radio has become what AM radio was, leaving the realm of AM downgraded to talk radio. It seems to be the future of FM as well.
The RIAA and the merger mania that rolled through the cartels have now left a waste land behind. They are no longer attracting the huge numbers of new generation listeners they once did. That will reflect in future profits and already does. Gone are the days of weeks and weeks of one song being on the top ten charts. One hit wonders surround the listening landscape. Those who do manage to come back for more, are usually far more into sex appeal than they are into what it is about; the music. Sex appeal does sell but it doesn’t sell well on the air waves in the forum of broadcast as well as it does the video format.
The cartels have no one to blame but themselves for this. Their rabid pet, the RIAA has done as much if not more than any other single action to remove the listener from wanting to have more choices and going for them. The only way now to hear new music is through indie sites and peer to peer. While not definitely not proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, you can be sure that many of those wanting to interest you in new music are using it for free samples. Free samples are a time proven method of getting exposure. So we have on one hand the use of the P2P by the very same people who are decrying the rapid expansion of the technology through out the public.
The lack of cd sales has been for the most part been encouraged by the industry to get rid of it. They as usual seek a more secure format for protection. Turning around and blaming others for the lack has also been a typical move by the cartels. Pirates killed the mom and pop record store where they got the most of their back catalog sales to hear the cartels and the RIAA spout the corporate line (estimated at around 30% of the total sales). Yet we don’t hear how the chain stores became the major seller of music across the nation. Simply making sweetheart deals is what killed the music store, not the pirates.
So now the RIAA goes on the rampage to do what it has always done, which is to fight technological progress instead of working to make use of it. Making use of new progress is what made the VCR the number one method of getting movies to the public and the major income producer.
So what is the difference between then and now? In the past when the cartels fought radio as being the distribution point for hearing of new music, once that was settled everything went back to normal. Why not today? Well today, more and more people are using that same technology to communicate with their fellows. Far less dirty deals are able to be hidden in the long run. Corporations have purchased the main media outlets to reap the profit but have at the same time taken out the spontaneity, the appeal to the unusal, the new, in depth reporting, local interest items, and turned it into a mush blend of blah that no one really cares for anymore. In the effort to protect market share and therefore stockholder returns the average corporation is afraid to insult any particular minor belief, kept news to what they wish to say instead of what is important, and turned everything into a bland blend of nothing, of interest to almost no one that thinks for themselves and realizes what is missing.
They have continued to take that profit to the lawmakers, going as far as to have new laws that protect their products in an attempt to say you can only get it here from us. Almost no one else is listening anymore as it has ruined most of the entertainment and continues to do so. The heyday is gone, left in it’s dust are the corporate entities such as is seen in the rabid dog actions of the RIAA.
*Third attempt at validation*
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
You made a very valid point in 6th paragraph that I would like to expand.
Quote “are usually far more into sex appeal than they are into what it is about; the music. Sex appeal does sell but it doesn’t sell well on the air waves in the forum of broadcast as well as it does the video format”
Look at what has happened to MTV and VH1. When the music industry first went to the good looking artists instead of the atalented ones, those two channels actually played music videos. Now since they play garbage programs and don’t play videos, the sex appeal does not sell.
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:29 am
I don’t think this will affect the big mega corp multi station owners. They will probably pull in more than they are forced to pay out via some form or payolla, which will never die. The small stations will be crushed like bugs underfoot.
Could someone give me a clarification; radio stations already make payments when they play a song. If they are paying what exactly are they exempted from? If the RIAA gets its way would the per song payment fee be raised of would radio stations be subject to an additional form of payment?
July 3rd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Currently most radio stations have to pay royalties to ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.). Both groups are made up of composers and publishers, they just have a slightly different membership. Depending on what kind of music a station plays, they may only have to pay one or the other. Right now they are exempted from paying royalties to the RIAA, in addition to ASCAP and BMI.
Adding RIAA into the mix is really stupid. Has anybody on the Copyright Board actually looked at the American commercial terrestrial radio industry? It’s sinking fast, everyone knows it, so why would anyone possibly entertain the idea that it can sustain yet another fee?
American regulators don’t seem to care about what the market can sustain, they just want to hand out money to whatever “association of artists” whines loud enough. No one wants to actually analyze the situation and figure out what is actually sustainable. We’ve got small-minded people running this thing who can’t fathom the fact that we’re right in the middle of a paradigm shift. The whole thing is so short-sighted, it’s almost laughable.