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| Rep. Mel Watt |
Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) plans to introduce a bill before the
August recess that would make radio broadcasters compensate musicians and
recording artists for playing their songs over the air.
"It would recognize a performance right so
[broadcasters] would have to sit down with artists and either work out a regime
on their own or be subject to litigation about the value of what they're playing,"
Watt told The Hill.
While an older version of Watt's bill from 2009 made it
mandatory for traditional AM/FM radio stations to pay royalties to musicians
for the songs that they air, the lawmaker told The Hill that the new bill won’t
go that far. The new version of the bill will simply establish that musicians
have public performance rights to their work.
Broadcasters in the United States currently pay
royalties only to music publishers and songwriters for terrestrial airplay,
meaning when songs are played over the air on AM or FM radio. They don’t pay
royalties to record companies or performing artists, under the argument that
the promotional value those parties receive is sufficient compensation.
Only Internet and satellite radio stations, such as Pandora
and SiriusXM, are required to pay royalties to the artists themselves.
Broadcasters are already starting to mobilize opposition to
Watt's forthcoming measure. Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB), warned in a statement that Watt's proposal
would "kill jobs at America 's
hometown radio stations" and direct money "to offshore record
labels."
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