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 why a lot of TV shows do not get released on DVD or Blu-ray. The music rights make it too expensive to do so.
Very true. WKRP had a lot of issues with royalties.
What’s this? 20+ posts already and no jokes about Dionne Warwick finding her way to San Jose?
Recording artists get paid exactly what they agreed to.
Songwriters are paid royalties because they own the copyright to the music. It's the same with books, photographs, etc. If you want to use their property, you pay them a fee.
If a recording artist wants to get paid more, they can negotiate with the the producer for more of the producer's share, (good luck with that), or with the songwriter (who can have someone else perform the piece if the recording artist is asking for too much).
Obviously lots of people otherwise your car wouldn’t have a radio. Car companies are all about de-contenting. If they can yank something expensive like the sound system, they’d be all over it.
And for the record. I do.
So would the recording artists include studio musicians? Often, the named artist was not actually the recording artist.
Imagine what the wrecking crew would have made if they got paid per play.
Johnny Carson wrote words for the Tonight Show theme, and got paid for every play, even though they did not use the words....
I don't mind the $20 a month or so it costs me. Nearly 100 channels of commercial free music in just about any genre I'm in the mood to listen to.
I also like that the artists and songwriters get paid on account of my subscription. Even though their royalties are fractions of a penny for each airplay, it can add up for the ones who have a lot of hits.
When I left FM radio, it was a wasteland of narrow playlists, non-stop annoying ads and the constant yakking of the "DJs" who were all trying to become the next Howard Stern.
Don't miss FM radio at all. It used to be good though.
Who would pay to listen to her other gig, the psychic friends network? She doesn’t even know the way to San Jose. smh.
Imagine what the wrecking crew would have made if they got paid per play.
Answering that question would end the argument. The Wrecking Crew preformed the piece in the studio and the "recording artist" got the credit on the album.
What would change in the compensation for Grammy Award winning Milli Vanilli? They didn't even sing the song on stage, much less the album.
The Wrecking Crew documentary:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185418/
Don't hold me to it but I could swear the last time I listened to FM radio the time spent in commercials equaled the music broadcast time. I recall it was during the evening commute window.
"You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world 11 minutes of commercials."
Where Glen Campbell got his start and I believe Brian Wilson used them for Pet Sounds.
You’re not on your own. This has always been my understanding and it has been through the courts. There’s a difference between the internet and radio - one is a ‘pull’ mechanism, the other is ‘push’. Broadcast radio pushes your music for you, people will hear it without requesting it. If they like it they will move to ‘pulling’ it specifically over the internet at their choosing.
This is especially important for new artists, they want to be heard and this is free advertising. Established artists are just being selfish here.
Forcing people to alternatives.
Not knowing this space, your comments sound reasonable.
Same with the Wonder Years
In re: “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.”
O.K., let’s say that’s all it is, and you are right.
Then why have the song writers always been paid royalties by the AM and FM stations??
And where in the hell would song writers be if no one performed what they wrote? And who in hell even remembers the song writer? Their songs may become famous but in most cases they never do.
The business-smart vocalists are those who are singer-song writers. They get the royalties even when others perform their songs.
Sing one time, get paid one time.
As there hasn’t been any good new songs on the radio since the 1970s and I have all the ones I want digitally on my phone, computer and thumb drives the point is moot to me.
Read an article years ago that Paul Anka wrote the theme music for the show and was paid every time it played. My father and I estimated that he made fifty thousand a year just from the one song. This was in the 70s.
Gene Roddenberry wrote words to the Star Trek theme just to make some money from it.
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