[mono]

Well, this little American indy record company owner is FOR the bill. Songwriters and music publishers, many foreign owned, get paid through ASCAP and BMI when their songs get played on the radio. Why not me and my artists? Pay us all or none of us.

[Reeses]

Commercial radio is essentially one continuous commercial, including most music which is used to indirectly advertise CDs, MP3 downloads, and concert sales. Large record labels indirectly funnel money to radio stations to play their music library. There's a new radio station in NY that allows small time record labels to also advertise their music: WNYZ 87.7 FM Indie Darkroom It's pretty good to listen to, but a part of it is essentially vanity radio paid for by aspiring musicians.

Taxes suck because government destroys about 50% of any wealth they get their hands on. Taxing music airplay will not be any different and shows a lack of understanding of how commercial radio works.

[raccoonradio]

Good point, admittedly; a music promoter & critic on my facebook, who’s a big lefty, started a thread in which he says: “The dumb Radio Performance Tax site blocked me again for saying this: Don’t believe the lobbyists. Artists get paid this royalty (not a tax) in Europe and the earth hasn’t stopped moving; on the contrary, more money is now in the hands of the people who have earned it, not big Corporations that take advantage of the Public airwaves. These are, after all, “public” airwaves...which is why we have the FCC (ostensibly)”

Question: aren’t the big record labels huge corporations, too?