A bill scheduled to come before the full House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, which would impose a royalty on music aired on the radio and, some opponents say, spell the end of black radio, faced growing scrutiny Tuesday.

The Performance Rights Act sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., would require radio stations to pay a fee to everyone who performs on a record, from the composer to the artist(s) to background musicians and singers to the person or company that owns the copyright to the song. That would be in addition to fees that broadcasters already pay to artist associations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Radio station owners, professional broadcast associations and other groups, who oppose the measure, say that rather than rewarding the background musicians and writers, whom the record labels contend are not adequately compensated through the other fees, as much as 50 percent of the new fees collected will go directly into the pocket of record label owners -- many of whom are headquartered outside the U.S.

Cathy Hughes, founder and board chairman of Radio One, and radio personality Tom Joyner say the bill, also called the "performance tax," could almost certainly spell the end for urban radio because the additional costs would discourage the activities that help promote artists' work.

"It will put a majority of black-owned stations out of business," Hughes said Tuesday on the Tom Joyner Morning Show.



"In terms of income, it would impact my income by 35 percent at a time when we're already struggling," Hughes said. "Everyone at Radio One just took a salary cut, and we have implemented furloughs" every other Friday.

Joyner said that very small stations, particularly gospel stations, that don't make a lot of money and sometimes gross as little as $100,000 a year would be devastated if they had to pay even an extra $5,000 annually in fees.

Supporters of the bill say that they simply want a level playing field in which digital services, including the Internet and satellite radio, are already paying the fee, while broadcasters do not. Smaller radio stations - which includes a lot of black-owned and small market broadcasters - with smaller operating margins say they simply cannnot afford the additional fees.

In a separate hearing on the Senate version of the bill back in March, several lawmakers pointed out that most recording artists would get nothing from the royalty because most musicians' music never makes the airwaves and that the law may ultimately protect only a small elite. Furthermore, 50 percent of performance royalties go to the copyright holder, which would be the record labels in most cases -- not the artists, musicians or composers.

Hughes accused Conyers of "turning a deaf ear" to the plight of black radio by introducing the bill and holding a hearing in March "with no black ownership at the hearing."

She said that during a meeting in Conyers' office with opponents of the measure, the congressman "turned up his CD player so loud that we could not hear anyone talk ... It was turned up to teenage volume."

Conyers' office was flooded Tuesday with phone calls and e-mails from opponents to the measure. Broadcasters opposed to the bill have urged listeners to call Conyers' Washington and Detroit offices at (202) 225-5126 and (313) 961-5670 respectively, or e-mail the congressman at john.conyers@mail.house.gov.

Conyers was unavailable for comment.

Besides the financial consequences of the bill, broadcasters note that the promotional value of free local radio airplay translates into significant revenues for artists and record labels. Frankly, they say, were it not for airplay of music at no cost to the record labels, .....

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After more research I may oppose the bill but if" Black Radio" is trying to say it promotes new artist thats a crock. Radio One in many ways is just as responsible for the hip hop focused music on urban radio as the white-owned media. There are many conscious hip hop artist who can't see the light of day on Black radio. Much of the more creative r&b music is coming out of Europe and Africa, but you won't hear it on Radio One stations. Jazz and Blues are non-existent on Black radio.

by   
Endoftheearth
May 12, 2009, 10:43 pm
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i believe it's HR848

by   
Dsups
May 12, 2009, 4:13 pm
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The bill number should be prominately stated in this article, more than once. I could not find it. I call my Congressman's office, and was constantly asked for the bill number which I could not find. The person answering the phone could not help me even after I explained what the bill was about.

by   
Donalexander
May 12, 2009, 2:30 pm
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