By Michael Kornfeld

Calling for “fair pay for airplay” and expressing its collective belief that artists should be compensated when their music is broadcast over the air, a new coalition of U.S. recording artists and music industry organizations announced the launch of musicFIRST (Fairness in Radio Starting Today) on June 14.  The move comes as a battle still rages over the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to raise Internet radio royalty rates (as previously reported here).

Among the more than 100 recording artists who have signed on as founding members of musicFIRST are Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Cathy Fink, Michael Doucet of Beusoleil, Jonatha Brooke, Jonathan Edwards, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock and Suzanne Vega.  Organizational members of the alliance include the American Association of Independent Music, American Federation of Musicians, Music Managers Forum-USA, The Recording Academy, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SoundExchange, and others.

“Of all the ways we listen to music, corporate radio is the only medium that refuses to pay performers even a fraction of a penny for their music and creativity,” maintains, Mark Kadesh, musicFIRST’s executive director.  “This campaign is about making sure everyone, from up-and-coming artists to our favorites from years ago, is guaranteed fair treatment when their music is played.”

Although artists receive payment when their work is played on cable, satellite and Internet radio, sound recordings do not have full performance rights (the right to be paid royalties when your work is played publicly) under current U.S. copyright law.  AM and FM radio stations must, however, pay composers, songwriters and music publishers via licensing rights from, and paying royalties to, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.  

According to musicFIRST, the United States stands alone among Western, free-market nations in not requiring terrestrial (over-the-air) radio stations to compensate artists and labels when they broadcast performances on the radio.  In response to U.S. radio stations failure to honor a performance right for foreign artists, radio stations abroad have withheld royalty payments to American artists and their labels.  Among other countries that do not pay a performance right are China, Iran and North Korea. 

MusicFIRST believes that “artists should be paid just as songwriters and music publishers are paid, with no reduction or negative impact on those other creators who equally deserve royalties,” according to its website   “All are essential to the creation, performance and enjoyment of music.”

The coalition is pressing for federal legislation that would close what it brands the “corporate radio loophole” in U.S. Copyright Law that exempts broadcast radio stations from compensating performers and labels.  Although the effort may extend for some time, Kadesh, a former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), said he anticipates House and Senate judiciary committee hearings in July.

Although he has strong Capital Hill connections, previous efforts to repeal the exemption have failed, and musicFIRST is up against a politically powerful adversary in the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).  The trade association that advocates on behalf of more than 8,300 free, over-the-air local radio and TV broadcasters, as well as broadcast networks, has vowed to “aggressively fight” what it calls a “radio performance tax.”   

“Radio airplay of music generates millions of dollars in revenue for record labels and artists,” Dennis Wharton, NAB’s executive vice president, asserted in a response statement, issued June 14. “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.” 

Andy Levin, chief legal officer for Clear Channel, which owns and operates more than 1,100 radio stations across the U.S., is quoted in the June 14 issue of National Journal as saying: “For 70 years, Congress has recognized the windfall big record companies receive from the airing of their product on the radio,” something he refers to as “a government-sanctioned right to free advertising.” 

Anticipating the ensuing battle, NAB President Donald Rehr, in a letter to federal lawmakers last month, wrote: “The existing system actually provides the epitome of fairness for all parties: free music for free promotion.” 

Cathy Fink, part of the Grammy Award-winning children’s duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, whose music is a mix of folk, country and swing, disputes such assertions.  “Because music is somewhat less tangible, people seem to think it’s not the same level of commodity as everything else that you buy,” she said.  “I can make the analogy that stores can say that they’re advertising your product by having [it] in the store… A store can’t say to a cereal company, give us your stuff for free because we’re promoting you.” 

In refuting the NAB’s assertions, musicFIRST points to a recent study by the University of Texas at Dallas’ School of Management, in which Stan J. Liebowitz writes: “Radio play does not have the positive impact on record sales normally attributed to it.  Instead, it appears to have an economically important negative impact, implying that overall radio listening is more of a substitute for the purchase of sound recordings than it is a complement.”  [Editor’s Note: While such may not be the case for many independent acoustic artists who rely, at least in part, on college and other non-commercial radio stations to expose their music to the public, CD sales have certainly been dwindling in recent years as digital downloading becomes more prevalent].