Broadcasting groups and Pandora panned a recent performance rights draft...

by cable, satellite and Internet radio providers. The legislation would also direct the Copyright Royalty Board to incorporate the price of artists’ intellectual property into broadcasters’ royalty payments related to music feeds they stream over the Internet. Nadler said the lack of a performance royalty for terrestrial radio airplay is a “significant inequity and grossly unfair,” in a news release (http://xrl.us/bnmsfz). “Artists deserve to be paid a market-based rate for their work, just like everyone else,” he said. But the National Religious Broadcasters said the current text of the bill would deal a “crushing blow” to many Christian radio stations, according to CEO Frank Wright. If passed, the legislation would create a “fundamentally flawed” over-the-air “performance tax” on Christian broadcasters, he said. The opposition from Christian broadcasters to the bill is no different from any broadcasters’ concerns, Nadler’s spokesman told us. “They're in the same boat.” What differentiates the religious broadcasters’ concern is paying singers of Christian music, he said. “Right now Creed is not paid for their performance, but the person who wrote Creed’s songs is, and it just makes sense that the singers should also be paid for their performance,” the spokesman said. “That’s what is driving people, I assume, to the radio, is to listen to Creed sing their songs. Well, they should be paid for it.” The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said they strongly opposed the bill, in a statement posted on their website (http://xrl.us/bnmsmz). The legislation fails to recognize the “unparalleled promotional value of local radio airplay” and would “kill jobs at America’s hometown radio stations,” said Dennis Wharton, NAB executive vice president-communications. NAB supports company-by-company free market negotiations rather than “job killing performance tax legislation that would divert millions of dollars to offshore record labels,” Wharton said. Pandora founder Tim Westergren also opposed the Nadler bill, which he said would only “worsen an already flawed legislative mistake that is discriminating against new technology and hampering innovation.” Instead of adopting the “willing buyer, willing seller” standard, Congress should embrace an alternative proposal offered by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, called the Internet Radio Fairness Act, Westergren said. The draft legislation would align the differing broadcast platform royalty payments under the 801(b) copyright law standard. “Fairness demands that all music related rate settings utilize the same 801(b) standard,” Westergren said in a statement. The musicFIRST Coalition said it supported the Nadler approach as an important interim step towards bringing “fundamental economic justice” to the issue of performance rights, said Ted Kalo, the group’s executive director.