Does anyone know where Kerry stands on radio getting charged performance royalty fees?

[beachmom]

Don't let the technical sounding "performance royalty fee" term fool you. This is a huge issue, and it pits two industries we all love to hate against each other: the recording industry and the terrestrial radio industry. I can't stand either. The recording industry has been whining for nearly a decade now that the internet killed their business, not the fact that they have so commercialized their "product" that they have lost the art of music in the process (with, obviously, some choice exceptions). They are most famous for declaring war on their own customers, going after grandmothers who downloaded songs. Then there is broadcast radio for which there has been so much consolidation of media companies that no matter where you live, radio sounds the same: the same formats with the same songs with a non-descript DJ whose voice is often manipulated by technology to sound local. Radio's famous moment was when the Dixie Chicks dared to criticize the President, and in response, their music has been banned from country music radio ever since. Also notable, was that Bruce Springsteen's album which had that song "Last to Die" on it got just about zero radio play on terrestrial radio because "it didn't fit in their format". They would only play his old stuff as "classic rock" but not his new stuff, because, oh, I don't know, it didn't sound like Britney Spears? Although I do think politics had something to do with these bannings, I also think it had to do with the narrowness of radio these days. Dixie Chicks started doing crossover music; politics was a good excuse to not play their newer stuff which did not adhere to the narrow view of what "country music" should be. Ditto Bruce Springsteen.

So amidst all of the problems with these two industries, there is now a piece of legislation being considered in the House and Senate:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090804-719057.html

Pop percussionist and one-time Prince protege Sheila E was the latest artist to come to Capitol Hill Tuesday to plead with lawmakers for legislation requiring radio stations to pay royalties to performers.

Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, will.i.am and Dionne Warwick were among the other A-list musicians who have come to Washington seeking performance royalties from broadcast radio.

"Radio is the only part of the music business where our work is used without permission or compensation," Sheila E, whose 1984 single "The Glamorous Life" topped the U.S. dance charts, told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing. Disco star Gloria Gaynor also was in the audience.

...

Broadcast radio stations now pay song royalties to songwriters and producers, but they don't pay performance fees for playing the artists' music.

In contrast, cable, satellite, and Internet radio pay performance royalties.

Both the House and the Senate have bills pending that would compel performance payments, but the legislation is a long way from becoming law.

The House bill passed the House Judiciary Committee in May, but it is unclear when it will see a floor vote. Senate sponsors warned Tuesday that the bill will see further action and urged the National Association of Broadcasters to engage in negotiations.

...

The bill has several high-powered lawmakers as supporters, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif. In the Senate, the legislation is sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Interesting group of Senators and Congresscritters co-sponsoring, isn't it?

Now here is why I bring up Kerry. If you notice above, internet radio is now paying royalties. Isn't that under the jurisdiction of Kerry's subcommittee in Commerce? Well, the internet radio royalty drama only concluded on July 7th!! How dramatic was it? Internet radio almost shut down; they did 24 hours of radio silence to protest legislation that made them pay up to 70% of their revenues! So what happened?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/technology/internet/08radio.html?_r=3&hp

Internet radio, once on its deathbed, is likely to survive after all.

On Tuesday, after a two-year battle, record labels and online radio stations agreed on new royalty rates that cover music streaming.

Many of the music sites had argued that the old rates were so high that they were being forced out of business. That could have come back to haunt the record labels, since for many people the sites are becoming a useful way to discover music.

“This is definitely the agreement that we’ve been waiting for,” said Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, one of the most popular Internet radio sites with 30 million registered users.

In 2007 a federal royalty board ruled that all so-called webcasters needed to pay a fee, set to increase to 0.19 cent a song next year, each time they streamed a song for a listener.

Webcasters said the fees would eat up most of their revenue, which generally comes from advertising on their sites and in their music streams, as well as from subscriptions and fees they earn when a listener clicks to buy a song from a digital music store.

This is the most troubling paragraph:

Small sites with less than $1.25 million in revenue, like AccuRadio, Digitally Imported and RadioIO, will pay 12 to 14 percent of it in royalties. All stations will be required to pay an annual minimum fee of $25,000, which they can apply to their royalty payments.

Think about that for a moment. What $25,000 for small sites means is that unless you have that kind of dough, no amateur will be able to start a radio station on the internet again. Or put it this way: the entry to get into the business just got a lot harder.

So back to broadcast radio, this diarist works for a radio station, and fears that if this law goes through, he is out of a job:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/1/760540/-What-the-hell-is-this:-Oppose-the-performance-tax.-Save-local-radio

I sympathize with him, and agree with him that the music companies have repeatedly screwed over artists, and they should complain to them if they are not being paid enough. Oh, so true. OTOH, broadcast radio is very, very, very bad. I mean, I am in the Atlanta market: 5 million people for goodness sake. No good radio stations, except NPR. The rest is garbage. I will continue switching stations for something tolerable only to throw on a CD. So he says "save local radio". What local radio? Maybe in some markets it exists, but nowhere I have lived in a long time. And there is another wrinkle in the whole affair. Internet radio is backing this new law. Why? Because they feel it will create a level playing field with broadcast radio (satellite pays already):

Kurt Hanson, founder of AccuRadio, said he hoped that Congress would eventually change the law so that all forms of radio pay the same royalty rates.

“Internet radio is one of the few bright spots in the music industry, giving airplay to dozens of genres and thousands of artists that never received airplay before,” Mr. Hanson said. Webcasters, he said, make it easier for listeners to buy music than any other form of radio does.

http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2009/07/important_updat_1.html

There continues to be royalty-related activity in Washington DC. On the heels of the above resolution, there is a new effort in Congress to fix the broader issue of how musical artists are compensated across all forms of radio. The system as it stands today remains fundamentally unfair both to Internet radio services like Pandora, which pay higher royalties than other forms of radio, and to musical artists, who receive no compensation at all when their music is played on AM/FM radio. We, along with the artists whose music we play, strongly support the establishment of a level playing field, a truly fair system, as articulated in a new bill called the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848).

It has been an extraordinary couple of years. Believe me, I never thought I'd be donning a suit and tie to walk the halls of Congress lobbying for a bill. Thanks to all of you for your continued support. It is incredibly exciting for everyone at Pandora to see the vision for the company truly beginning to take shape. We are all looking ahead with renewed vigor to the future.

Cheers.

Tim (Founder)

Now, due to the above Dkos diary, someone mentioned in the comments that they listened to Pandora radio. So I checked it out. Wow, it is awesome and a lot of fun. Better than satellite radio IMO for music:

http://www.pandora.com/

And basically free (there are times you have to pay, but for most people it is free). As is another really good one:

http://www.radioparadise.com/index.php

Plus a kazillion more.

The advent of the iPhone and smart phones is that these internet radios can play on them. And then be plugged into a car radio or headphones at home. So, um, goodbye crapola broadcast radio for sure. Unless, they give up the media consolidation, and truly go local. Which can't happen if they are weighed down by big royalty payments to the record industry.

So I personally feel conflicted on this one. Internet radio and even Satellite radio is running circles around the godawful radio broadcasters. But I don't see why the recording industry has to always be rewarded. And I would feel bad if guys like the diarist lose their job as a result or hamper any movement toward true local radio. OTOH, it isn't fair if internet and satellite radio have to pay up but radio broadcasters don't.

So, as I ponder this very important legislation, I wonder where Senator Kerry stands on it.