{"id":202042,"date":"2025-11-05T18:17:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/11\/05\/no-radio-without-royalties-new-rules-for-a-new-era-guest-column-2\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T18:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:17:42","slug":"no-radio-without-royalties-new-rules-for-a-new-era-guest-column-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/11\/05\/no-radio-without-royalties-new-rules-for-a-new-era-guest-column-2\/","title":{"rendered":"No Radio Without Royalties: New Rules for a New Era (Guest\u00a0Column)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tHere\u2019s a story that captures everything wrong with Washington: Billion-dollar corporation asks Congress to force car manufacturers to install AM radio in every vehicle \u2014 a government tech mandate worth billions of dollars to its bottom line \u2014 while refusing to pay the artists and rights owners whose music is the very foundation of their business.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast Congress, lawmakers such as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries saw through this scheme and stood firm. Radio lobbyists went home empty-handed. Now they\u2019re back, asking for the same corporate handout, and still refusing to pay artists a dime. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tIrving Azoff Says It\u2019s Time to Stand Up to YouTube\u2019s \u2018Bullying\u2019 (Guest\u00a0Column)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tFemale Agents Have Come a Long Way, But There’s Still Progress to Be Made: ‘We Have to Continue to Fight for Each Other’\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tWarped Tour Founder & Vets Explain What Makes the Traveling Fest So Special: ‘Best Summer Camp on the Planet’\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tBefore you say, \u201cBut who listens to AM\/FM radio in 2025?\u201d, ask yourself this question: Why are corporate radio lobbyists fighting so hard for this government mandate?\u00a0Because keeping radio in cars is worth almost $14 billion in advertising every year.\u00a0And why is it worth that much?\u00a0Because hundreds of millions of Americans still listen to AM\/FM radio every week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBig Radio spent over $13 million lobbying Congress last year, which doesn\u2019t even include the millions they contributed to political campaigns, to protect their golden goose at the expense of artists. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCorporate radio lobbyists engage in a cynical game of claiming something we all know isn\u2019t true. They claim artists should be satisfied that \u201cpromotion\u201d on radio is good enough compensation. But the days of Americans discovering music on AM\/FM radio are long gone. Social platforms like YouTube and TikTok are where music breaks now. Last year, 84% of Billboard Global 200 songs went viral on TikTok first. Radio adapted by abandoning discovery and repeatedly playing popular songs radio listeners already know \u2014 in a single day recently, one iHeart station played songs by six major artists 112 times. One station. In a single day. Without paying a penny to the performers.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat isn\u2019t promotion. It\u2019s exploitation.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tA Bill That Would Require Artists to Be Paid for U.S. Radio Play Is Likely Dead. But the Fight Isn\u2019t Over (Guest\u00a0Column)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tThat\u2019s why the last Congress rejected radio lobbyists\u2019 efforts to pass the AM in Every Vehicle Act. And why they must again reject it unless radio corporations agree to tie it to the American Music Fairness Act that ensures artists are paid fairly for radio plays.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the American Music Fairness Act, small and community stations would only have to pay between $10 and $500 a year to play all the music they want. The bill also gives radio corporations the opportunity to tell the independent Copyright Royalty Board what they think the performance royalty rate should be. If radio conglomerates believe their airplay has promotional value, they can make their case.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor some reason, AM\/FM radio companies think they are special and that the principles of copyright shouldn\u2019t apply to them. Every other platform pays artists for the work they do. Spotify. Pandora. SiriusXM. Only AM\/FM radio \u2014 the most established music platform \u2014 claims it should be exempt from this concept.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor years, corporate radio lobbyists engaged in cynical practices to block music legislation. But now they are the ones who want Congress to act. And that gives music creators power \u2014 and they are speaking out with one voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMusic-Related Legislation Before Congress Right Now: Full List of Bills\u00a0(UPDATING)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tOver 300 artists \u2013 from Aerosmith<\/a> to Barbra Streisand<\/a> to Jelly Roll<\/a> to Mariah Carey<\/a> \u2013 wrote Congress earlier this year<\/a> calling for passage of the American Music Fairness Act. This was an unprecedented display of artist unity for fair pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd just this week, Boyz II Men<\/a>, Gloria Gaynor<\/a>, Mike Love<\/a>, Sammy Hagar<\/a>, Smokey Robinson<\/a> and others called on congressional leaders to pair the AM bill with the American Music Fairness Act. Their message was simple: \u201cWhen you save the radio industry by mandating its technology remain in cars, we ask that you save the musician too and allow us to be paid fairly when our music is played.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists have never been this fired up. Perhaps that\u2019s because, like the rest of America, they are fed up with our workers being taken advantage of. This is about priorities. Big Radio corporations want Congress to mandate that their product be installed in every new car sold in America \u2014 government intervention to protect corporate profits. Meanwhile, musicians are simply asking to be paid for their work.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe solution is simple: If radio corporations want billions in government-mandated protection, they need to start paying the workers whose labor generates their wealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNo corporate handouts without worker fairness. No radio without royalties.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Huppe is the president and CEO of SoundExchange, where he champions creators and spearheads the use of technology, data and advocacy to power the future of music. To date, SoundExchange has distributed more than $12 billion in digital performance royalties to a growing community of more than 800,000 music creators. Michael is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, a published author, lecturer and active community member. He is a member of YPO, Forbes Business Council, and Fortune Brainstorm Trust, with opinions published in <\/em>Variety, <\/em>Rolling Stone, <\/em>The Wall Street Journal, <\/em>Music Business Worldwide, <\/em>Billboard and <\/em>The Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n


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Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a story that captures everything wrong with Washington: Billion-dollar corporation asks Congress to force car manufacturers to install AM radio in every vehicle \u2014 a government tech mandate worth billions of dollars to its bottom line \u2014 while refusing to pay the artists and rights owners whose music is the very foundation of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}