Music industry advocacy group MusicFirst has sent an open letter to Congress setting out their legislative priorities. Members of the coalition include the Recording Academy, the RIAA and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).
Broadcast radio, copyright law and statutory rates are all covered in an open letter to Congress from the MusicFirst industry coalition. Some highlights:
“musicFIRST pursues one goal – that market-based principles drive compensation for all artists and creators whenever and however their music is played.”
On Radio: “Big Radio is again this Congress asking Members to sign a House Resolution, supported by old facts and crony capitalist logic, stating that big corporate radio should never pay for its only input – music. We strongly urge you not to cosponsor this controversial resolution, the so called “Local Radio Freedom Act.” It is seeking to tie the hands of the House Judiciary committee which has been working very hard to find consensus market-based solutions to this issue for several years.”
On Pre-’72 Music: “Older artists have been forced to chase large, profitable music services across multiple state courts in lengthy and expensive litigation to pursue basic compensation for their valuable catalogs. Nearly every music service in the U.S. has discovered that this anomaly in U.S. law allows them to not pay for pre-72 music, so they don’t. Simple legislation will address this.”
On A Standard Rate For All Music Services: “we seek a simple and market-based rate standard for all music services. Digital services like Pandora use a market-based rate, satellite services like SiriusXM use a grandfathered below-market rate and, again, terrestrial radio plays music for free. We want every business that delivers music to consumers to thrive and grow, but they all should pay a market-based rate to the artists and creators that they depend on.”
Read the full letter here.