Posted on 06/29/2021 5:02:16 AM PDT by gattaca
Legendary recording artist Dionne Warwick says "flat-out procrastination" by politicians on Capitol Hill over many years is the main reason why recording artists and musicians still do not collect royalties from AM/FM radio.
Songwriters, not musicians or vocalists, are paid royalties for the music played on AM/FM radio.
"Procrastination, just flat out procrastination," Warwick, a five-time Grammy Award winner, said during an interview after the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act was unveiled. "It should have happened 60 years ago when it was brought to the attention of Congress in the Senate by Frank Sinatra and, for whatever reason, they feigned that they did not understand or did not know that we were not being paid, which is completely insane."
Warwick joined co-sponsors Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Capitol Hill to publicly support the legislation, which would require AM/FM radio stations to pay royalties to recording artists and musicians.
The bill would establish a performance royalty that would be paid to recording artists and musicians, a spokesperson for Deutch told Just the News. These recipients "would not get any portion of the songwriters' existing royalties."
"Just like internet and satellite companies pay both songwriters and performers, terrestrial radio would be required to pay both," the spokesperson said. "There are existing rate setting procedures for internet and satellite radio, so under the bill terrestrial radio would undergo that same process. And it is important to note that many of the terrestrial radio stations simulcast their stations over the internet — and pay royalties set under the internet radio rate settings — so they are already quite familiar with this process."
Warwick told Just the News that she wants to meet with President Biden about the legislation.
"Absolutely," she said. "I'd love to meet with him. I think that's something he would welcome.
Deutch said the focus of the bill is fixing the music royalty system so that "going forward we don't ever have to have this conversation about fairness again."
Between XM and the oddball music ported to the smart phone, I almost never listen to any of the local stations.
“last time I listened to FM radio the time spent in commercials equaled the music broadcast time. “
It is. Literally. I’ve been working on a special project in the garage and tried to listen to an FM station. They would play 10 minutes of repeated tracks then 10+ minutes of commercials. They had maybe 30 songs they repeated. I had to turn it off.
Congress isn’t on her side forever more! Who woulda thunk it?
Paul Anka wrote the music for The Tonight Show theme.
LOL there were also words to the theme from Lawrence of Arabia:
Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
He was an English Guy
He came to fight the Turkish
So you made your original point for nothing.
So artists have never been paid royalties other than the composers and writers. Kind of late as most of those that could have benefited are retired or dead and radio is not what it was.
Her finances have been mismanaged for years, it’s her own responsibility.
It amused me.
Newbomb Turk nice! Hollywood Knights great movie
Voool-ar-ee!
Besides. Who listens to radio anymore. I gave up radio when Rush died. His replacements suck. Music can be accessed many different ways
I’ll say a little prayer for her...
Wait, didn’t a band called Sugarloaf sing a song about that?
No question it is her responsibility. However, if artists are being shorted on royalties, then maybe . . . Maybe she should go back to doing the Psychic Friends Network ads.
Katrina of Katrina and the Waves the song Walking on Sunshine. Even though she is not credited solely with writing it she has most of the rights to it. Song gets used in a movie every 10 years or so a commercial every 5-7 years. She has almost made a living off that one song.
With her hits she should be rolling in money. What happened.
WOW
“ The money is made now from using songs in movie and TV soundtracks.”
Streaming services too - worldwide.
I remember those ads.
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