Musicians Seek Pandora's Support For Radio Performance Royalty

A Continued Push For A Performance Royalty

Last week (NET NEWS 11/26), ALL ACCESS reported ongoing attempts to pass royalty rate legislation suffered a major blow, as PANDORA had given up its support to get Congress to act on the Internet Fairness Act. Now, musicians, who favor having terrestrial radio pay a performance royalty, hope PANDORA will join their side.

THE HILL reports, "the two sides have compelling joint interests. Musicians want the royalty fees, and PANDORA wants a more level playing ground with AM/FM stations."

“We hope now that we can look forward as partners and work together to assure all creators are paid fair market value for the use of their works across all platforms,” RIAA SVP MITCH GLAZIER said in a statement.

“We welcome them and have long said that it’s not fair that PANDORA pays more,” added MUSICFIRST COALITION Exec. Dir. TED KALO, “but we want that equalized in the right way.”

Radio has long contended it shouldn’t pay to play songs because the airplay is free advertising for musicians.

There is legislation that could change that. Rep. MEL WATT (D-NC), "ranking member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, introduced a bill earlier this year that would end the exemption," notes THE HILL. "WATT has been nominated to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but Rep. JUDY CHU (D-CA) is a co-sponsor of the bill, and a House Judiciary aide said WATT will recruit other members if confirmed.

An NAB spokesperson commented, "NAB will continue to make the case that local radio remains the number-one vehicle for generating record sales and exposing new recording artists.”

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