Emmis: Performer fees would hurt radio-WEB ONLY

Jeff Smulyan, chairman of Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp., said a move to pay performers amounts to another tax and would come at a most inopportune time for the struggling industry.

Emmis owns 23 U.S. radio stations, including four in Indianapolis.

“It’s obviously a very big issue for this industry,” Smulyan told IBJ this morning. “This would amount to a really egregious tax.”
    
Satellite radio, Internet radio and cable TV music channels already pay fees to performers and musicians, along with songwriter royalties. AM and FM radio stations do not pay royalties to performers, just songwriters.

“People deserve to be paid when somebody else uses their property,” Hancock said.

He and the other musicians, including Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle, appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. The group is pushing legislation that would require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid to songwriters.

Smulyan said there is a system in place whereby performers get paid through money radio stations pay composers and record labels to play the songs. Smulyan added that radio provides something else to performers.

“The artists are the ones that get all the exposure,” Smulyan said. “No one becomes a star without this exposure.”

The National Association of Broadcasters, who oppose the measure, said a fee would put thousands of radio jobs at risk. The association also argues that stations drive listeners to buy music and concert tickets.

“NAB welcomes an honest debate over whether radio stations or the record labels have historically been a ‘better friend’ to musicians,” Dennis Wharton, the organization’s executive vice president, said in a written statement.

Hancock said people tune in to the radio because of the music.

“Just as radio promotes music, music promotes radio,” he said.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would make radio stations pay the artists when their songs get airtime.

Advocates say the bill accommodates smaller commercial stations, which could pay $5,000 per year. Public radio, college stations and other noncommercial stations could pay $1,000.

Larger stations’ rates would be set through a government regulatory board, which would determine the fair market price for the use of the songs. The smaller stations could also choose to have their rates set by the board.

Warwick said she hasn’t been compensated while her songs played around the world for 48 years.