The new music coalition formed today comes as the U.S. Register of Copyrights endorsed the Fair Play Fair Pay Act.
At the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante called the bill an “excellent legislative framework” that would enact reforms called for in her office’s recent Music Licensing Study. Pallante said the lack of an AM/FM performance right is “indefensible.”
Radio says it does pay a performance right and the measure would force it to pay twice and put struggling stations trying to stream their signal out of business.
Pallante urged Congress to bring all forms of radio under a single market value rate standard, which the bill would do, because the current mix of royalty rules, standards and grandfathered exceptions is difficult to apply.
The music label-backed musicFIRST coalition called Pallante an independent expert. She “speaks for no industry or special interest, only for good policy,” said musicFirst Executive Director Ted Kalo.
