Pelosi to music industry: 'You have an army of advocates' in Congress

[Newsjock]

Source: The Hill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced her support for new royalties for singers Thursday on Capitol Hill and didn't miss the opportunity to tie it to healthcare reform.

Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking at the Recording Academy's Grammy on the Hill advocacy event, said singers, songwriters and musicians deserve to be compensated for their creativity.

"The rights of performers are not forgotten," she said. "You have an army of advocates by your side — from both parties — on Capitol Hill."

... The Performance Rights Act would require radio stations to pay royalties to singers, as online radio and satellite radio already do. Broadcasters have fiercely pushed back against the proposal, this week saying radio stations do a great service to singers by providing free promotion of their work.

... But there is strong opposition. In the House, Reps. Gene Green (D-Texas) and Mike Conaway (R-Texas) are circulating a "dear colleague" letter saying a performance "tax" would be detrimental to new and unknown artists and would decrease the diversity of programming on the airwaves.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/92489-pelosi-to-music-industry-you-have-an-army-of-advocates-in-congress

[smalll]

1. And, the IT/nerdlinger scum who pull everything off bittorrent or whatnot will decend

upon this thread any moment now.

--- Actually PAY creative people for their work? Snarf! It is to laugh! But bring in a few H1-B visa folks? That's a new Holocaust! :eyes:

[laughingliberal]

3. Pay creative people? For their work? Their creative work?

Heavens!

Can't they just wait tables and such like all the starving creative people?

[Cleobulus]

5. Hmm, interesting strawman...

I'm all for paying artists, I'm not so keen on enriching those who would illegally hack into my computer(BGM-Sony), or advocate for the elimination of fair use laws. If that makes me scum, so be it.

[Chulanowa]

2. Green and Conaway are idiots

has anyone here ever heard a "new and unknown artist" on the radio? I've heard them once or twice on like, some special late night local shows, but honestly, these artists aren't commanding much by way of royalties ANYWAY because - get this - they're new and unknown.

I pay for my Pandora, and I hear vastly more musical variety, from better artists, in better quality than I've ever heard on the AM / FM band.

if royalties have to be paid, it will probably give more airtime to those "new and unknown" artists, simply because they're not going to command the budget that playing Nickelback every 40 minutes would.

[lazarus]

4. if you want diversity

of programming, break the back of ClearChannel and corporate radio. Many radio stations don't even have music on site. The "DJ" simply does announcing from a script, whilst the music is piped in by satellite from corporate HQ.

[guitar man]

6. Free promotion my ass

You could go out right now, find some top notch talent, top notch writers and drop $750k or more in a world class studio with the best producer you can find and NOBODY is going to put it on the air for free, unless you are already a well established act with a platinum record or two under your belt. Whether they are willing to admit it or not, it's a "pay to play" world if you want to hit the airwaves these days. After you've dropped a bundle producing your talent, you better have another bundle to grease the station or station group's palm with if you want to get into rotation.

So when they talk about "free promotion" , excuse me while I :puke:

[NavyMom]

7. The need to write a law making record labels pay the artists, Michael Jackson

along with Prince knew the labels were stealing from the artists. The labels are trying to make the listeners pay these artists instead, according to them they incur so much overhead with the artist for promotion & marketing but radio stations send money to a third party that is SUPPOSE to pay the artist but do not. If you were to purchase an album from iTunes the label gets the majority and the artist MIGHT get a part although no overhead or low overhead to download the album.

Take a look at Michael Jackson or Prince stand against these labels, Prince did not record a new label until his contract ran our even putting the word "slave" to promote how he was treated, he felt after years in the industry he deserved more per record/album. This is the main reason some of the younger artists began their own label because they were not getting paid.

Michael Jackson joins fight/Michael Jackson starts a label

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,259925,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64526,00.html

[metapunditedgy]

8. The music industry is a sick and dirty place. Like health insurance, we're

paying a bunch of artificial middlemen every time we buy something. Middlemen who serve no purpose except to enrich themselves. They hurt the artists, they hurt the consumers, and they hurt the music.

That's the truth of the matter.