Performers seek royalties on airplay from radio

Associated Press: Performers seek royalties on airplay from radio.

A coalition of recording artists, music companies and industry groups said Thursday it will push for compensation of performers whose music is played on the radio.

The musicFirst Coalition, which counts recording artists Don Henley, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and Wyclef Jean among its members, intends to lobby Congress for new laws requiring the payments by broadcasters.

The group said U.S. performers, from superstar vocalists to background singers, deserve to be paid when their work is aired on AM or FM radio.

"The artists and the musicians and the community in general have come together to say now is really time to make sure that when music is played on the radio, that people who perform that music are paid fairly to do it," Mark Kadish, the coalition's executive director, said during a conference call with reporters.

Under current law, only songwriters are paid royalties when songs are played on AM or FM radio.

Previous attempts by the recording industry to gain royalty rights for performers have failed. The group said it was too early to say how much money performers should be paid.

The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents more than 8,000 radio and television stations, vowed to fight the campaign, saying royalties for performers amount to a tax on U.S. radio stations.

"Congress has long recognized that radio airplay of music generates millions of dollars in revenue for record labels and artists," Dennis Wharton, the broadcasters group's executive vice president, said in a statement.

"Were it not for radio's free promotional airplay of music on stations all over America, most successful recording artists would still be playing in a garage," he said. ...

True. This is exactly the opposite of what Congress ought to be enacting -- a rollback of the exorbitant rates paid to the recording industry that will put thousands of Webcasters out of business.