Fred Mills
Last month a group of recording artists and organizations calling itself the Music First Coalition joined forces in order to seek royalties for their music when it gets played the radio. Their mission statement, according to the Music First Coalition website, is to “level the playing field and promote fairness among all types of radio,” adding, “Corporate Radio has had a free pass for too long.”
The movers and shakers behind the Coalition are several key recording industry groups (including the RIAA, Soundexchange, the American Federation of Musicians and the Christian Music Trade Association). Among the 100-plus musicians listed as “Founding Artists” on the website are everyone from such progressive-minded performers as Aimee Mann, Warren Haynes, Brian Wilson, the Dixie Chicks, Los Lonely Boys and the Thievery Corporation to the, er, less forward-thinking likes of Toby Keith, John Legend, the Pussycat Dolls, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Don Henley, Barry Manilow and Alanis Morissette. On the surface, it’s hard to find fault with anyone who’s simply trying to get paid fairly for his or her work, much less banding together — strange bedfellows or no strange bedfellows — in the hopes that strength in numbers will prevail.
In fact, for years artists’ groups have been making noises about getting radio airplay royalties, so the Music First Coalition isn’t exactly singing a new tune here. And to date, broadcasters’ organizations such as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have successfully argued that without radio airplay, artists wouldn’t be able to sell nearly as many records as they do — that airplay and music sales are positively linked.
A June 15 editorial by Radio Magazine weighed in on the matter, pointing out that both sides of the issue bear scrutiny while observing that portions of the Coalition’s stance were somewhat dubious:
“Music royalties have become a major issue in recent years. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act brought many of the previous loopholes to light. The NAB has already begun its campaign against the coalition’s efforts, and if its zeal in this case matches what the NAB has done in the satellite radio debate, there will be a great deal of attention on this issue. The NAB’s rebuttal to the coalition’s announcement singles out John Legend, a member of the coalition, who also participated in a terrestrial radio promotional campaign in 2005 where the artist thanked radio for its contribution to boosting the performer’s career.
“It’s true that terrestrial radio has been able to avoid the royalty fees for music airplay, and few will deny that musicians should be compensated for their work. The Coalition artists deny that radio airplay helps them in any way, but this is not true. Perhaps a mutually agreeable royalty payment is in order, keeping the airplay benefit in mind. Unfortunately, the Internet streaming royalty situation has already shown that determining a mutually agreeable rate is a difficult task.”
Good points, all. At any rate, who exactly has been getting the so-called “free pass” that the Coalition mentions? Ever since the advent of the top 40 countdown (rumored to have been invented by cavemen who banged together the week’s most popular sticks and rocks in between cracking Cro-Magnon jokes during the Jurassic drive show), radio has exerted a huge influence upon record sales. You might even say that radio has been and continues to be a highly effective — and, if you ignore issues of payola, completely free — promotional tool for the music biz! For the Music First Coalition to claim otherwise seems disingenuous at best, and just plain friggin’ crazy at worst.
In that regard Coalition isn’t doing itself any public relations favors. Last week an interesting news report surfaced to suggest that the Coalition, if not ready to bring out the big guns just yet, is willing to indulge in a stealth bombing campaign. In a July 23 report publirecord store from 1992 to 2001, so I was on hand for a good chunk of the music industry’s alterna-era boom as well as the post-Napster bust. One thing remained constant throughout that period: Local radio airplay always, without fail, affected our sales. It didn’t matter if it was a new artist whose song got added to a station’s rotation or an older artist who had a back catalog track played a few times: customers would always come in, looking for the record in question. And I guarantee you that same scenario continues to play out, every day, in every city, across America.
Good luck finding those weapons of NAB destruction, folks. This has been a public announcement — with guitars.
