This is massive!

[Timeline]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/0 ... indus.html

[James Steele]

Boy... this is interesting. I have mixed feelings about it as both sides have some valid points and what's interesting to me is that "Composers" aka Songwriters DO get paid from AM/FM royalties. So this is about singers/musicians getting royalties... people who perform on a song but did not write a song.

This might make it even more necessary to have side artist agreements if any musician appearing on a recording could potentially make a claim for royalties from radio broadcast.

I can't help have the sinking feeling that once again the recording industry is shooting itself in the foot and this might be a mistake. It might work if the recording industry presses for "reasonable" fees that don't anger broadcasters too much, but let's face it, radio is still an important promotional tool for artists. We're assuming of course that not all stations will turn to "talk radio" but it just seems like rather than thinking out of the box, the recording industry is resorting to shake downs.

Man... I just don't know. This is wild stuff. I'm sort of dismayed though at the grandstanding and immature gestures like sending herring to NAB and then making press releases about it. It just looks childish. Either way this has the potential to blow up in somebody's face. Maybe this might bode well for local indy artists who would waive airplay royalties and stations might have more unsigned artist shows.

Geez... all shooting from the hip here. These are just crazy times we have here!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Interesting. Neither side is talking about the fact that radio play is the best advertising a band or musician can get short of appearing on Letterman. Managers used to pay to have records played on the radio (anyone remember the term payola?). It is word of mouth and callers calling in to "play that song again" that gets the band sales.

BTW, if you are under a AF of M union agreement at the time of the recording, you do get paid when a work is aired on TV or used subsequently, but I don't think that applies to radio broadcasts.

[Timeline]

But it's so damn hard to get airplay in rotation. 5 grand a year for small stations? Is that per artist or for all artists? This would matter.

Also.... When companies like clear channel lock up the playlists, only those artists would see more doe. We need regulation to get these big monopolies to start playing new artists a bit or we'll never have a chance.

As for the money, anything we can grab from NA damn B is fine by me. They're pigs. I know this for sure as my uncle owned an Arizona TV station and would steal music when he could, if he could and he was a multi millionaire. And.. all of his buddies who owned stations felt the same way and bitched about musicians making money when they had to pay at the end of the year. I went with him to NAB in the '80s and joined in parties and met some of these rich AH's. You wouldn't be on the fence if you saw and heard what I heard.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Don't even get me started on the shenanigans the Euro TV stations are up to! I could have bought a house (or a few gallons of gas) with the money they didn't pay me.

[FMiguelez]

...Managers used to pay to have records played on the radio (anyone remember the term payola?).

That sounds like a distant past... in the USA. Here, it is done on a daily basis, and not only stuff related to radio play. Almost anything that has to do with music.
I dare not talk about this in more detail publicly, but it would make you want to vomit.

My blood pressure is starting to raise...