Copyright chief pushes Congress to adopt a radio royalty.

INSIDERADIO

April 30, 2015

The U.S. Copyright Office has pushed for a performance royalty on FM/AM airplay for more than two decades, and current register Maria Pallante is singing a familiar tune. She told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday the current lack of a radio royalty puts the U.S. out of step with the rest of the industrialized world. "It’s indefensible as a matter of law, and frankly embarrassing as a matter of policy," Pallante said. Like her predecessors, Pallante believes parity across platforms would be a fairer system to the music community and the various outlets that use their creations. "When their songs are played on radio, they’re subsidizing the profits of broadcasters," she told the panel. The House Judiciary Committee was a sympathetic venue. Its members have long pushed for a performance royalty on radio, even passing a bill to create one in 2009, only to see the rest of the House reject the idea. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) is trying again, introducing legislation this month that would force stations to pay for airplay as well as for streaming services for recordings made prior to 1972. Nadler told his fellow lawmakers that his bill would "create a technology neutral system" that ensures artists are "fairly compensated regardless of where their music is played." Nadler’s bill has so far added just three co-sponsors, although Pallante said it provides an "excellent legislative framework."

Pallante: radio’s a royalty ‘oddity.’ Radio’s performance royalty battle is wrapped in a new package this year, as supporters have closely tied the issue to a larger update of copyright law. During yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, register of copyrights Maria Pallante said a century of regulating music it has left "oddities," like the lack of a radio royalty in place. "We have all of these disparate rates and grandfathered clauses that are really difficult to apply," she told lawmakers. "It does not serve the digital economy. It does not serve new entrants to the marketplace. And it definitely does not serve creators." Her comments reiterated a report on the music industry released by the Copyright Office last year which also advocated a performance royalty on radio. Supporters seized on her statements. The Recording Academy’s chief lobbyist Daryl Friedman said her "words were music to musicians’ ears" and they "wholeheartedly agree that music creators are struggling with outmoded laws that have not kept step with the digital age." The musicFirst Coalition also embraced her endorsement of Rep. Jerry Nadler’s proposed Fair Play Fair Pay Act, which it believes will create a music licensing system that works better for creators and radio. Meanwhile, three more lawmakers have come out against efforts to collect a performance royalty from radio stations. The list includes the House Commerce Committee’s top Democrat, Frank Pallone (D-NJ), as well as Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC). That brings the number of