SoundExchange: Recording Artists Champion Fair Royalties

SOUNDEXCHANGE today said that recording artists from across the country announced their "enthusiastic support" for the new digital royalty rates announced on MARCH 2 by the COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD. Here's a sampling:

"If music adds commercial value to someone's site, then there is a monetary value due the writers and recording artists," said JODY STEPHENS of BIG STAR and GOLDEN SMOG. "The decision by the CRB helps us afford to continue to add this value of music."

MICHELLE SHOCKED said, "A lot of Internet users think of music as a product created and generated by major labels with corporate megadollars and so think nothing of taking or paying very little to use this music. But the evidence shows that a large majority of music is now created by independent artists with very small margins trying earn a living and it's in that context that the recent decision to raise the Internet broadcasting rates are seen as an encouragement to creativity and independence."

I applaud these new royalty increases as they scratch the surface of the new world order.

Said COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME inductee HAROLD RAY BRADLEY, "I've been a recording musician for 61 years, and although a lot of people don't know my name, they've heard me playing on their favorite recordings by ELVIS PRESLEY, WILLIE NELSON, PATSY CLINE, ROY ORBISON, TAMMY WYNETTE, JIMMY DEAN, LORETTTA LYNN, BRENDA LEE, HENRY MANCINI, JOAN BAEZ and many others. I know just how hard musicians work, just how valuable our creativity is to the businesses that play our recordings, and just how important it is to musicians to be paid fairly so we can continue to make music. The COPYRIGHT ROYALTY BOARD got it right."

And TWISTED SISTER's JAY JAY FRENCH opined, "With the shrinking royalties from the usual sources, the ever-expanding digital universe is apparently becoming the future, and, before our very eyes, it is here now. I wholeheartedly support all organizations that endeavor to collect and account to all the hard-working artists whose material is exploited. I applaud these new royalty increases as they scratch the surface of the new world order."

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