NAB VS The Pols and the Labels.

Hey Metallica? Whay don't you start whining about this, huh?

With Labels hurting financially, they are now trying to get a 'performance tax' levied on Radio Stations. Stations that already pay liscensing fees.

"But but but they are stealing our music! Waaaaah!".

NOw, 'civil rights blowhards' are gearing up to fight the new tax. Gee, I wonder if the NAB might contribute to thier campaigns?

Oh yeah, also note that the new $$$ really only goes to 'established artists' like Douchetallica. New artists get the crumbs.

This is what you get, Motor City. Motown is offically dead.

http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/Federal_Bill_Pushes_For_Performance_Tax/15753

At the moment, the labels seem more intent on destroying their relationship with radio and the free promo that comes with it - even though it is critical to generating hits, and hits are still the name of the game. They'll probably also continue to sue college students - and lose money!



• Record labels, artists and radio broadcasters have a mutually beneficial
relationship: Free radio airplay of music by local radio stations promotes
record labels and artists, and generates millions of dollars in sales of
music.

• The labels are essentially asking for a bailout – a reward for clinging to a
failing business model. Imposing a performance fee on radio will result in
the loss of jobs, reductions in stations’ non-profit and local charitable
works, less diversity in station ownership and less diversity in music.

• This is the worst possible time to talk about a new fee on local radio.
Thousands of jobs have been lost in the radio business in the last year
due to the economic downturn. A performance tax would force radio
stations to lay off thousands of more employees.

• The kind of revenue loss that would result from a performance tax would
also put the $6.09 billion generated by stations for local non-profits in
donations, airtime and disaster relief at risk. The performance tax would
force many radio stations to cut back on public service and charitable
activities in the communities they serve.

• Three out of the four largest record label conglomerates are
internationally-based. Call it a royalty, a fee or call a tax -- it's irrelevant.
Whatever you call it, this would be a massive blow costing America's
hometown radio stations between $2 to $7 billion annually delivered
straight to the big, foreign-owned record labels.

• Local radio stations introduce and promote artists to an audience of 235+
million people every week. Contrast that with the decades-long
exploitation of artists by record labels -- most recently demonstrated in a
lawsuit against Universal Music Group for allegedly cheating artists like
Count Basie and Benny Goodman out of their contractual royalties.

• Performing artists "get paid" by the record label at the time they sign a
recording contract. It is not the fault of the radio stations that many record
labels have systematically abused artists for decades.

• Local radio stations currently pay $500 million dollars annually to groups
like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, which goes to compensate songwriters and
music publishers. Broadcasters recognize that songwriters have less
opportunity to monetize their work. Artists, on the other hand, are able to
parlay free airplay into increased album sales, concert sales and
merchandizing opportunities.

• Free promotion by local radio stations generate between $1.5 - 2.4 billion
annually in music sales, according to a recent study by former Stanford
economics professor James Dertouzos.

• Some radio stations that play music will simply switch to another format
-- thereby avoiding having to pay the new performance tax. If radio
stations stop playing music, how does that benefit the artists?

Local radio. Its all about power and money and the first shots are coming across the bow.


Used to be you had to pay to even get on the radio. Now it's called 'payola'. They pass this bill, I say bring back payola. Fair is fair, right Liberals and Whiny pussies like Metallica? Or this clown, Duke Fakir.

http://detnews.com/article/20090514/ENT04/905140480/Protest-over-Conyers-bill-angers-Duke-Fakir


"The way I presented the bill to a lot of Congress people, I turned a couple of heads on it," Fakir said. "Some of them didn't know that everything else in radio is paid. Whether you talk, you walk, whatever you do, it's paid -- except for the performers on disc."

Currently, AM and FM radio stations pay ASCAP and BMI, who then pay songwriters and song publishers for radio airplay of songs -- for example, the songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland and the publishing company Jobete get paid for every spin of "Baby I Need Your Loving" by the Four Tops.

But Levi Stubbs, Duke Fakir and the rest of the Four Tops, who sang the version played on the radio, don't get paid. That always struck Fakir as unfair, when he noticed the checks that the songwriters were getting. "We brought that song to life," he said. "

But Duke, did you write the song? No you did not. You SANG the song,and the publishing company PAID you to sing the damn song. You agreed to thier contract, and now you see they have made $$$ off thier gamble, and you don think that's fair?

Good grief.