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| Rep. Mel Watt |
Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) has introduced legislation to require
that broadcasters compensate artists and labels when their music is played over
the airwaves, adding to the long history of efforts by the music industry to obtain
such a “performance right,” according to Variety.
Watt, who is the ranking member of a House Judiciary
subcommittee on intellectual property and the Internet, had indicated last
month that he planned to unveil such a bill.
The effort by artists and labels to establish a performance
right goes back decades — Frank Sinatra once championed it in a legislative
push in the 1970s — but opposition from radio stations has been fierce. A bill
seemed to make progress in Congress in 2009 and 2010, when it passed the House
and Senate judiciary committees, but a potential compromise fell apart before
the legislative session ended.
Watt’s Free Market Royalty Act will obligate AM and FM
stations to pay performers when they play their songs over the air, something
that digital and satellite services already do. Songwriters and publishers also
are compensated for radio airplay.
Broadcasters have argued that the free airplay is a valuable
promotional platform for artists, and that have been lining up supporters
behind a separate piece of legislation, the Local Radio Freedom Act, to prevent
such a plan to require payment for performance.
But they also have been pointed to recent agreements between
artists and individual station groups, like Clear Channel, to provide such compensation
and argue that the issue can be resolved by the private sector.
In a statement, Watt said that “those deals expose the
unfairness and inadequacy of the current system and they strongly point out the
need for a legislative solution that will apply market wide.”
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