Pay for (Broadcast) Play Rally

If you're in NYC tomorrow you may want to attend a (free) Content Creators Coalition event promoting their effort to get the United States to add pay for (broadcast) radio play royalties to the mix. It's headlined by David Byrne, from whose email list I got the notice. The event invite has more info on the performer list and event location.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that royalties have been a major sticking point for Web radio. Pretty much every form of digital transmission involves royalty payments, but terrestrial broadcast radio has had an historic exception to this requirement, which the CCC and others want changed.

In theory I'm sympathetic to this effort. It's undeniable that people whose music has seen heavy airplay have not been compensated for that play. However, the imposition of royalties on other forms of broadcast/streaming have not served artists well. See the ongoing attempt to drive Pandora out of business by playing royalty shell games. The simple notion that adding royalties to broadcast radio will automatically mean money for artists obscures the vast mechanisms of the Cartel, which have proved adept at extracting money from all and sundry, but have a much worse track record in paying out to anyone. I'd like the CCC - or anyone else who supports adding broadcast royalties - to spell out how this money is going to be different and how it will actually flow to the performers. Once I see that, I'll be more likely to support.