NAB Decries musicFIRST Targeting Local Radio Freedom Act Co-Sponsors
Congressional supporters of the Local Radio Freedom Act may begin to experience pushback from their home districts due to the musicFIRST coalition’s new campaign to spotlight the resolution’s co-sponsors, said artist rights advocates. NAB, which backs H. Con. Res. 16, deplored the move. The coalition began targeting Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and David Price, D-N.C., Wednesday, running full-page ads in their district’s newspapers and launched a social media campaign (http://bit.ly/TVuXpC) (http://bit.ly/1oKFQpG) highlighting their support of H. Con. Res. 16, said Ted Kalo, musicFIRST executive director, in an interview. The coalition is “targeting [congressional] members who have strong independent music communities in their districts,” he said. Price and Blumenauer didn’t comment.
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The issue is whether performers should receive royalties for airplay on AM/FM radio. H. Con. Res. 16 would prohibit “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air” (http://1.usa.gov/1phG8VW). The bill has 227 co-sponsors. Several members of the House Judiciary IP Subcommittee, including ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., have voiced displeasure with the absence of a terrestrial performance right. Some music industry experts and artist rights advocates expect Nadler’s forthcoming “MusicBus” bill to deal with terrestrial royalties (CD June 19 p11).
The campaign is “part of a desperate attempt to funnel tens of millions of dollars away from America’s hometown radio stations and into the pockets of record label executives based outside the U.S.,” said an NAB spokesman. “Broadcasters pay $330 million a year to songwriters while providing unparalleled free exposure for musicians that leads to increased concert ticket, album and merchandise sales.” NAB pointed to two recent Nielsen studies (http://bit.ly/1vEUGPr) (http://bit.ly/1yNEikg) that “confirm the correlation between radio airplay and record sales,” it said.
"NAB and its allies have been using” H. Con. Res. 16 “as a way of asserting that the majority of the House doesn’t favor a terrestrial performance right,” said Kalo. Congress members have been “given a free pass” and “we're not going to give them a pass anymore,” he said. Kalo plans to have “folks on the ground” in the selected districts to educate people on the issue, he said. The coalition is planning to target next Reps. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., and Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, who are co-sponsors of the resolution, he said. “The ads are ready and we're going to move forward with them shortly.” Stivers and Coffman didn’t comment. Congressional supporters of the resolution in Texas are also being eyed by the coalition, because Texas is a “music loving place,” he said. H. Con. Res. 16 co-sponsors from Texas include House Republicans Blake Farenthold, Ted Poe and Pete Sessions; Texas House Democrats include Gene Green and Ruben Hinojosa. The Recording Academy, RIAA and SoundExchange are among musicFirst’s founding members (http://bit.ly/1qOuBhB).
"From the recent copyright hearings in Congress to statements from federal agencies and the administration, it’s become clear that you can’t have platform parity for music services without closing the loophole that allows AM/FM radio to not pay performers,” said Casey Rae, Future of Music Coalition vice president-policy and education. “The NAB tactic of putting pressure on legislators because of commercial stations in members’ backyards is past its sell-by date.”