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Pro Music Royalty Groups Step Up Lobbying

Content Creators Coalition, others ask Congress to reject Local Radio Freedom Act

In advance of Congress returning to town next week, two groups that want broadcast radio to pay music royalties are stepping up their lobbying.

The Content Creators Coalition, which describes itself as an artist-run nonprofit advocacy group representing creators in the digital landscape, has written to all 535 lawmakers asking them to oppose the Local Radio Freedom Act.

That act is a resolution supported by several members of the House and Senate that states that Congress should not impose “any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station.”

“Broadcasters’ refusing to pay a performer for the commercial exploitation of work is no tax,” says the coalition in the letter. Lawmakers have received “thousands” of letters opposing the LRFA in the past three weeks, according to a similar group, musicFirst.

NAB has lobbying of its own planned for next week, when it hosts its State Leadership Conference with leaders from state broadcast associations, as well as facility owners and other station executives.

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