Congress locks radio stations, record labels into boardroom

Radio broadcasters and music labels are at each other’s throats over the question of whether radio ought to pay “performance rights” to rightsholders when it plays their music on the air (currently, only songwriters get paid, not artists or labels). And Congress has a plan to settle the issue: lock both sides into a Capitol Hill conference room for a couple of weeks until a negotiated compromise is reached, then vote on whatever the two sides decide. The Performance Rights Act would clear up a discrepancy in performance rights; satellite radio and webcasters currently pay performance fees to artists, but radio does not, thanks to a longstanding exemption in copyright law.

Read more here:
Congress locks radio stations, record labels into boardroom

Stumbleupon

Related posts:

  1. BBC to cull radio stations, halve websites in painful biz review
  2. Aussie Record Labels Demand $5 p/Member Gym Tax
  3. The RIAA’s bogus radio witchhunt
  4. RIAA vs. Public Radio – Performance Rights Act Moves Ahead

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 P2P News

Leave a Reply