Report: The Hypocrisy In Performance Royalties Battle

In a blog posting over the weekend, Radio/Media writer Darryl Parks opined about what he calls the hypocrisy in radio's battle over performance royalties.

Read the full blog: Click Here.

Darryl Parks

Parks also unveils what he calls a few 'dirty little secrets'.

According to Parks, each year radio stations pay millions in music licensing fees to the composers of songs. "You may have heard of BMI, ASCAP or SECAC.  These are organizations that collect the licensing fees, which are then paid to songwriters or composers.

Not only do radio stations that play music pay these licensing fees, so do stations that are talk formats – stations that don’t play music.  Depending on the revenue a station brings in, in certain markets the radio station paying the most in licensing to BMI/ASCAP/SESAC may be an AM talk station.  Parks asks: that doesn’t seem fair, does it?"

Another dirty little secret of the music industry.  "There are times a song artist will be listed as the composer or co-writer on a song they didn’t write."

Why?

"When a song is recorded by a big star, the tune has a better chance of getting played on the radio.  The song gets that free advertising on the radio so it can be heard in hopes someone will buy the song.  To record the song, the artist demands his or her name be listed as a composer to get a cut of the music licensing fees radio stations pay.  This takes money from the true composer of the song."

Again, Parks writes: "That doesn’t seem fair, does it?"

Parks concludes: "Organized crime had its fingers sunk deep into the record industry back in the 60′s and 70′s, because they knew the good deal record labels had with radio and vice versa.

Today’s modern day crime syndicate, known as Congress, is blind to a good thing when they see it. The relationship between radio and record labels built on “mutual respect” and a quid pro quo."

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