AFTRA, AFM Call for ‘Fair Play for Air Play’

by Mike Hall, May 11, 2009

You can take a stand for the folks in the band today and tomorrow. Let your congressional representatives know that it’s time that radio stops stiffing musicians and recording artists and pays the piper…and the singers, guitar players, drummers, keyboardists….

When a song is played on what is known as “terrestrial radio”—the radio you receive over the air—the men and women who play and sing do not receive a single penny in royalties for the music they created. But 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.

The Music First Coalition says it’s time recording artists receive “Fair Play for Air Play.” The coalition includes American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

The group is asking people to take action and call their lawmakers today and tomorrow and urge them to support the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848 and S. 379), which would  close the loophole in copyright law that allows AM and FM stations to duck royalty payments to performing artists. The House Judiciary Committee will vote on the bill Wednesday.

Go to the coalition’s Take Action page, enter your ZIP code and click the “Call Now” button and follow the prompts for contact information and talking points, than call your representative.

The United States is one of only a few countries that do not provide fair performance rights on radio. The others include Qatar, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and China. Also, because U.S. radio stations do not pay a performance royalty for foreign artists either, American artists are not compensated when their music is played on stations around the world.

In March, Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE), told the House Judiciary Committee:

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.

For more information, visit the Music First Coalition.

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