Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Radio Royalty Fans Play April Fool's Prank

When the MusicFirst coalition sent out a press release Wednesday morning declaring that a radio royalty deal had been reached between the recording industry and AM and FM stations, lobbyists at the National Association of Broadcasters probably choked on their Cheerios. Then they likely realized it was April Fool's Day and resumed their effort to sink legislation introduced in the House and Senate that would require such a payment. Over-the-air radio has long been exempt from the fee but cable, Internet and satellite services do fork over funds to performers. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers introduced companion bills in February and NAB fought back with resolutions opposing any new charges on local radio.

"We were surprised when the broadcasters said 'let's work out a deal that is fair to artists, musicians and labels and fair to radio.' But they seemed sincere, so we threw caution to the wind and took them up on their offer to talk," MusicFirst Executive Director Jennifer Bendall said in a fake press release. "After that, it didn't take long to reach an agreement." The release quotes a broadcasting source as saying "we were foolish not to come to the table sooner." "It was hard for us to keep a straight face when we spoke in opposition to a fair performance right on radio. Defending the proposition that we can take someone else's performance, make a bundle of money and then not compensate them was tough," the phony official said. A real NAB spokesman issued a one-word response: "Lame."

House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., told NAB members Tuesday that he wants them change their tune on the performance fees by dropping their opposition to compensating artists and record labels for playing their songs. Read the story in CongressDaily here (subscription required).