US music association addresses copyright concerns in letter to Congress
US-based music advocacy group MusicFirst has written a letter to Congress outlining copyright concerns for “thousands” of musicians and recording artists in the country.
MusicFirst sent the letter on Wednesday, January 18, on behalf of “the thousands of American musicians, recording artists, managers, music businesses and performance rights advocates in every state who comprise the MusicFirst coalition”.
The music advocacy group was founded in 2007 and works to ensure artists get paid fairly for their work. Founding members include the American Association of Independent Music, the Recording Academy and the Recording Industry Association of America.
MusicFirst said that it has worked “across party lines” in both chambers of Congress to strengthen and improve US law, but that “there are a number of areas where the law does not dictate market-based compensation for artists and creators”.
The new Congress has a “unique opportunity” to address these longstanding concerns with “straightforward solutions”, said the letter.
MusicFirst argued that terrestrial radio must join every other platform in the country that “builds a business delivering copyrighted content, and compensate artists for their music”.
“The imaginary argument that radio ‘compensates’ artists by promoting them in the era of social media, digital services and 24-hour entertainment news doesn’t hold up anymore,” claimed the association.
It added that “big radio” makes billions by playing (predominantly older) music.
“In any other market-based arrangement they would have to compensate the owner of that music at market rate. Congress can very easily fix this,” the letter said.
MusicFirst added that radio stations are asking Congress to sign a House of Representatives resolution, which is “supported by old facts and crony capitalist logic, stating that big corporate radio should never pay for its only input—music”.
The music group asked Congress not to be part of this “controversial resolution”—the Local Radio Freedom Act—as it is “seeking to tie the hands” of the House Judiciary Committee, which has been “working very hard to find consensus market-based solutions to this issue for several years”.
A House resolution is a legislative proposal that requires approval of both the House and Senate, as well as the president, to become law.
The music advocacy group then addressed federal copyright law, which in the US doesn’t cover works made before February 15, 1972.
“It’s an inexplicable anomaly in federal law that even the Library of Congress can’t explain. So, most music from before 1972 is not compensated for when it is played on digital radio, satellite radio and, obviously, terrestrial radio,” explained the association.
MusicFirst then added that nearly every music service in the US has discovered this anomaly, so the services don’t pay for pre-1972 music. “Simple legislation will address this,” the association said.
President-elect Donald Trump is due to be inaugurated in Washington, DC today, January 20.
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