Greater Media President/CEO Peter Smyth says musicians know when their songs break on radio “good things happen to their career.”
So, he wonders in his latest blog, why was traditional radio repeatedly attacked during a recent House hearing on music licensing?
Smyth credits NAB Joint Board Chairman Charles Warfield, senior advisor to YMF Media and Radio Music Licensing Committee Chairman Ed Christian, president/CEO of Saga Communications, for keeping their cool during the hearing. Radio was “repeatedly accused of unfairness of the highest order. Why? Because we continue to run our business as usual, which includes continuing our role as the most influential source of new music sales in the United States?”
“All of this grandstanding takes place in front of one of the most unproductive, do-nothing Congresses in the history of our country,” said Smyth. “While members ignore and dodge real questions about how to move our country forward, they waste time and energy playing for the cameras about music licensing.”
The good news, he believes, is it will take lawmakers “a very long time” to pass any legislation addressing the patchwork of music licensing copyright issues.
Related:
Warfield on the Hill
Licensing Arguments Remain Entrenched
Groups Seek Simpler Music Licensing
