Thursday, February 5, 2009

Armey Will Lobby On Radio Royalty

Former House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, who represents music industry clients at DLA Piper, said he plans to lobby hard this Congress in favor of legislation that would end a longstanding music royalty exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations. On Wednesday, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy simultaneously introduced bills that would make the change, which the National Association of Broadcasters has vowed to fight. Armey called upon former colleagues last year on behalf of the MusicFirst coalition, which is backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, the American Federation of Musicians and others. Read CongressDaily's AM Edition story here.

"There has to be a clarification in this anomaly in the definition of property rights," Armey told Tech Daily Dose, saying he believes the legislation has "a very good chance of being passed." In the 110th Congress, the measure was approved by the now-defunct House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee and the Senate version stalled in the Judiciary Committee without a mark-up. A House resolution opposing the effort gathered more than 200 supporters. "This is a small increase in expense for the number one product radio puts out," Armey said, noting there are exemptions written in for talk radio and religious broadcasters and a lower rate for noncommercial entities.

In related news, Armey said music industry interests have largely wrapped up final negotiations this week on an agreement with broadcasters to lower the royalties that over-the-air stations pay for songs they stream on the Internet in advance of a Feb. 15 deadline. "[Broadcasters] were perfectly willing to sit down and talk about how to diminish their burden of responsibility on the Internet... but when it comes to the question of sitting down to talk about compensation for over-the-air broadcast, they won't talk at all," he said. Parties in those negotiations have agreed not to speak publicly about the discussions, which have been going on for many months.