It’s Crazy That Musicians Don’t Get Paid Royalties for ‘Terrestrial Radio’

by Mike Hall, Mar 12, 2009

When you hear a song on your car radio, the boombox you’ve got in your garage or some other form of what’s known as “terrestrial radio,” you probably figure the folks who made that music are getting paid. The artists who wrote the music do receive royalties for airplay, but the men and women doing the singing and playing get squadoosh, nada, nothing.

However, if that same tune is played on satellite radio, streamed on the Internet or piped in through cable TV music channels, the band gets paid.

It’s time to close that loophole in copyright law, Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE), told a House committee.

Testifying Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee on the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848), Almeida said the issue is a matter of fairness for working musicians:

While a relatively small number of performers are able to attain (but not necessarily sustain) fame and fortune, the vast majority of recording artists, singers and musicians must work hard to patch together modest earnings from various sources in order to support their families. The most successful ones are able to build middle-class careers in music. Most performers, even those who appear to the outside world to be successful, have to work “day jobs” to pay the bills. In what other profession would you be required to give your work away for free?

Commercial radio stations earned over $16 billion in advertising revenues last year, yet they paid nothing to the performers whose music they played. As union members, we believe that this is an issue of fairness. We believe in the principle that a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.

The United States is the only major nation in the world that does not provide radio performance rights. That is a double whammy for musicians. Because U.S. copyright law does not provide for performance royalties for U.S. or foreign artists’ airplay, U.S. performers receive no royalties when their music is played on foreign stations.

More than 90 members of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) met with members of Congress last week urging passage of the bill.

Last year, in a statement backing performance royalties legislation, the AFL-CIO Executive Council cited the late country legend Patsy Cline as an example of the unfair treatment of performers.

The greatest jukebox hit of all time, Patsy Cline’s recording of ”Crazy,” demonstrates the difference. Willie Nelson receives a royalty every time Patsy Cline’s recording of “Crazy” is played in public because he wrote the music and the lyrics to the song. But Patsy Cline, the Jordanaires and the inimitable session musicians who created the great recording receive nothing.

Almeida told the committee:

It is long past time that our brothers and sisters who belong to our affiliated unions, AFM and AFTRA, are paid for the work that they create.

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