Nadler Re-Introduces Radio Tax

March 30, 2017

They say they are leveling the playing field. On Thursday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) re-introduced the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, a bill to create a modern and uniform system of rules governing music licensing for digital and terrestrial radio broadcasts. What that means, if this bill passes, is that you will pay a tax to play music. Here’s what the bill says:

“The Fair Play Fair Pay Act would create a terrestrial performance right so that AM/FM radio competes on equal footing with its Internet and satellite competitors who already pay performance royalties. This would resolve the decades old struggle for performance rights and ensure that—for the first time—music creators would have the right to fair pay when their performances are broadcast on AM/FM radio. Bring true platform parity to radio so that all forms of radio, regardless of the technology they use, pay fair market value for music performances. This levels the playing field and ends the unfair and illogical distortions caused by the different royalty standards that exist today.”

It also says that terrestrial royalties should be affordable, capping royalties for stations with less than $1 million in annual revenue at $500 per year (and at $100 a year for non-commercial stations), while protecting religious and incidental uses of music from having to pay any royalties at all. Make a clear statement that pre-1972 recordings have value and those who are profiting from them must pay appropriate royalties for their use, while we closely monitor the litigation developments on this issue.