Hesh Rabkin, call your office!
Now that terrestrial radio is just about dead…let’s throw them a bone.
Eating the seed corn is never smart.
They used to make their money off of record sales that were generated by radio play, didn’t they? Isn’t that where “pay for play” came from?
Airplay leading to sales is such a longstanding and absolutely fundamental part of the music industry that it's astonishing if they didn't consider it.
So...minimum wage for records?
What isn’t clear in this discussion is that songwriters have been paid royalties for decades on their recorded songs played on the radio. Performers who do not write their own songs have not been paid for radio performances.
Performers have been paid handsomely for their live performances (concerts) and that is how they become wealthy.
While the Beatles had a Ringo Starr hit with the earlier hit version by Buck Owens of “Act Naturally,” it was songwriters Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison who earned the radio performance royalties (along with Buck Owens as the song’s publisher) on the song’s airplay.
What ‘radio stations’?
I still listen to local radio for what amounts to Muzak, but there are very few Top 100 Hits type stations still functioning now. The days where the country enjoys the same kind of popular music at once are all but over. Sad but most likely true.
Most people under 50 get their current music from podcasts and shows on the internet. This brand new law is about 40 years too late to make a difference.
Sam Moore’s heyday was during the first President Johnson Administration, if not earlier.
“As the biggest labels get bigger and the richest performers get richer, startup labels and new performers would have a harder time promoting their music and penetrating the market, which would lead to diminished consumer choice and a decline in the overall health of the music industry.”
That’s been said so many times, and every time it was false.
Then, along came The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Nirvana etc.
And blew everything up.
The issue is the dearth of real talent. Not that somebody can’t get air time.
Since IHurtRadio.”owns” more radio stations than any other hedge fund front, and since they control most of the “music” produced now, and since they scoff at anything not in the 18-34 demo, well, then, there you have the real root of the problem….payola on the grandest scope imaginable..
I would love to see Sam Moore. He was great. But Isaac Hayes and David Porter wrote most of the songs for Sam & Dave.
How long before iTunes starts charging your account for playing music?
The glory days are long gone and have been. Top 40 is dead and gone along with Casey Kassem.
Dione is a has been and the amount of money she would get would not solve her financial problems.
If this is fair then what about royalties for painters and artists.
Freaking insanity.
No song of Dionne Warwick should even be under copyright anymore. We apparently have the best congress money can buy.
Makes a good point that previous reporting had left out - the set fees in the “Fairness Act” legislation.
While I am in agreement that if the song writers are abd must be automatically paid royalties by over-the-air broadcasters (which they are), but the vocalist is not, there is some unfairness in the current arrangements. But whatever the solution, government set and mandated fees should not be part of it.