 RAIN 12/18: No holiday break for radio royalty battle ·Dec 18, 11:52 AM RADIO, MUSIC INDUSTRY RENEW PERFORMANCE RIGHTS ACT SNITBoth sides of the battle over sound recording royalties for broadcast radio partook of a little holiday-themed sniping this week. Broadcasters organized to resist the imposition of sound recording royalties sent a Christmas-themed memo to every member of Congress, reminding lawmakers “free airplay and promotion to recording artists” makes for a U.S. radio industry “mutually beneficial” to broadcasters, artists, and the record industry alike. The lobby representing the music industry and backing a bill in Congress to impose royalties, musicFirst (here), quickly volleyed: “Radio, don’t be a Scrooge,” musicFirst executive director Jennifer Bendall wrote in a statement. “Join us in creating a performance right on radio that is fair to artists and musicians and fair to AM and FM radio stations,” she asked broadcasters.
“Big, foreign-owned record companies… haven’t kept up with the times and are losing the fight to iTunes, Internet and satellite radio,” reads the Free Radio Alliance (here) memo, titled ‘The Grinch That Tried to Steal Free Radio.’ “Now, they are being Grinches and MusicFirst members include the RIAA and SoundExchange. The organization’s bill is the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 4798), sponsored by the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, Howard Berman (D-CA). (A companion Senate bill is sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT)). The measure would compel radio to pay the record industry for the right to broadcast recorded music. Congressmen Gene Green (D-TX) and Mike Conaway (R-TX) sponsor a resolution opposing the new royalty. Radio & Records writes (here), “Congress has clearly been more open to the notion that terrestrial broadcasters may be benefiting from not paying fees where cable, Internet and satellite radio operators” are required to do so. Read more from the National Journal’s Tech Daily Dose here. PROPOSED NY “IPOD” TAX MAY INCLUDE PAID STREAMING MEDIATo address his state’s budget deficit, New York Governor David Paterson has proposed what’s been dubbed the “iPod tax”: a 4% tax to digital downloads of songs, movies and ebooks. The tax, according to Wired, may even include paid streaming content (e.g. Netflix “on demand”). Noting that taxes on physical products like shoes could send New Yorkers to New Jersey to shop, Wired’s Eliot Van Buskirk muses (here), “Taxes on iTunes songs, Netflix streams and cable/satellite television could drive New Yorkers to another “New Jersey” where stuff is even cheaper: P2P networks, where not only do taxes not apply but where you don’t even have to pay for content in the first place.”
PANDORA CEO TO KEYNOTE RADIO INK CONFERENCEPandora CEO Joe Kennedy will be the keynote speaker at Radio Ink’s Convergence ’09 conference. Kennedy, a Harvard MBA who joined Pandora in 2004, “knows all the legal and technological ins and outs of Internet radio and will be able to help clarify those for Convergence attendees.” Click here for more about the conference. Read the press release about Kennedy’s keynote here.
STUDY SHOWS TRADITIONAL MEDIA INFLUENCES ONLINE BEHAVIORA new study from MS&L and part of Publicis Groupe has found that 84% of nearly 1,000 respondents said they go online to find out more about something heard or seen on radio or television. The study says this shows that traditional media plays a “vital role in igniting the process that leads influencers to share information online.” Read more at Jennifer Lane’s Audio4Cast blog here.CBS INTERACTIVE POSTS TRAFFIC INCREASESA number of the key properties owned by CBS Interactive saw increases in traffic, according to Nielsen Online’s November data. Last.fm posted a 26% traffic increase from last year and 21% increase in minutes spent at the site. CBSNews.com, CNET, GameSpot, and CBS.com also saw increases. Read more at RBR here.Errata: Yesterday we erroneously reported that AdWeek had given CBS Radio a “Top Media & Marketing Innovations of 2008” nod for the Play.It platform. The award is actually for CBS Radio’s general online radio player. We wanted to make sure and clarify this. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
asking Congress to tax local radio stations to subsidize their failing business model.” 
I have a show on Flashback Alternatives, internet station, over the last few months I have been interviewing bands and promoting releases. Two questions I have asked in every interview. How do you feel internet radio being the next wave for getting airplay. And the second was about royalties. The answers always seem to be the same, that without the internet stations they may not be hitting the target listeners. And that they are thankful for the internet stations and they are not seeing any money from the royalties of airplay. This baffles me, since our station pays the fees, whose pockets are they lining? Drop the Royalty Battle and let the music play on and start paying the money to the right people! With promoting the CDs each band has made sales on the CDs, fans of my show email telling me they bought the CDs and thanks for show.
— DJ Wave · Dec 20, 08:22 AM · #