In the U.S. Senate, Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming and Democrat Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire have reintroduced a resolution opposing performance royalties for radio.
This is the latest familiar step in a dance that has been danced on Capitol Hill year after year, to the point of seeming routine. Whether a performance royalty for radio will actually come any nearer to reality in this Congress feels like anyone’s guess.
The National Association of Broadcasters saluted Barrasso and Hassan for bringing the measure back. It said 20 senators, representing both major political parties, have cosponsored the latest version of the resolution, “signaling strong support for local radio stations in the new Congress.”
The measure earlier this year was introduced in the U.S. House by Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas and Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida; it has about 125 cosponsors in that chamber.
“Similar resolutions were introduced in previous Congresses and garnered widespread, bipartisan support, including more than 250 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives and Senate in the last Congress,” NAB wrote.
But a performance royalty has friends on the Hill too.
A few weeks ago, Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and Democratic Senators Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, reintroduced the American Music Fairness Act. In the House it was reintroduced by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York.
As broadcast attorney David Oxenford explains in a recent blog post, the latter legislation would impose a new music royalty on over-the-air radio stations. The royalty would be payable to SoundExchange for distribution to performing artists and record labels for the use of their recording of a song. This would be in addition to payments already made by radio to composers and publishing companies through ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR for performance of musical compositions.
