Radio Performance Bill Re-introduced In House

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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