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."
That’s what friends are for. ;)
Who listens to music on AM or FM anymore?
Check who's lining the pockets of Congress. The explanation for the inaction will become clear.
Her Psychic Friends could have told her that.
This morning was the first time ever that I looked up a celebrity net worth and discover a negative number. She is bankrupt at -$10.2 million and needs that royalties safety net.
They play your music on the radio. If you are popular you sell lots of records and people want you for concerts. That’s how it always worked. If your music is old and/or unpopular in later life, you should have saved the money you made when you were popular.
Recording artists get robbed.
L.a. is a great big freeway.
Put a hundred down and buy a car.
In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star
Weeks turn into years. how quck they pass
And all the stars that never were
Are parking cars and pumping gas
LOL!....................
I hope you paid a royalty to Burt Bacharach for that!...............
i thought she was dead!
The money is made now from using songs in movie and TV soundtracks.
It has always been thus.
I may be on my own here, but I think that’s a little greedy of her. Playing her music on the radio is basically free advertising.
If this continues... talented people will decide to do something else to make a living and we will be left with a bunch of mediocre leftist celebrities producing garbage.
Only the government can save us.
Blame Sony and others.
The Turtles (Flo and Eddie) had a lawsuit going because rates to artists of the 1960s were far less that for more contemporary acts and Sony “settled” with Big Media for a poorer settlement and blew the pre-existing “Turtles” case out of the water. IIRC it gave Big Media another 5 years of the different rates.
Simple economics. For every band/performer who gets signed, there are thousands who don’t.
The record companies hold all the cards, you want a contract, you sign over your publishing rights, take it or leave it, we’ve got a thousand other acts that sound just like you.
AM talk.
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