By Dan Perkins – New Contributor! Big Music — in particular, the world’s largest record labels — is asking Congress to advance yet another industry bailout. Does this major lobbying interest ever know when to say enough is enough? Just weeks ago, the labels received a substantial legislative victory when the House of Representatives passed an amendment that advanced […]
By Dan Perkins - New Contributor!
Big Music — in particular, the world’s largest record labels — is asking Congress to advance yet another industry bailout.
Does this major lobbying interest ever know when to say enough is enough?
Just weeks ago, the labels received a substantial legislative victory when the House of Representatives passed an amendment that advanced their HITS legislation. HITS will “aid and support artists and producers struggling with the ongoing economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic” by amending the U.S. tax code to make it cheaper and easier to produce music.
Rather than celebrate this notable victory, Big Music has already moved onto its next ask. It now wants the legislative branch to pass the American Music Fairness Act and charge local radio stations for playing music over the air.
The labels’ whole reason for existing is to maximize the exposure of artists’ music, and radio stations do it for them at no cost. What other product receives free advertising, reaching hundreds of millions of people each week? The truth is that the mass promotion of music by local radio stations is crucial for Big Music’s bottom line.
Just three months ago, the Copyright Royalty Board, the federal government’s statutory music rate setting body, acknowledged the value of radio airplay, when it wrote: “the bulk of the evidence is persuasive that labels perceive a distinct promotional value in over the air radio play of their recordings.” And yet, here Big Music is, asking to be paid for this lucrative free promotion anyway.
It’s not as if the labels are struggling financially. Rolling Stone reported that the major music companies’ profits soared in 2020 — the year of chaos — which has given them enough capital to begin purchasing artists’ music catalogs in droves.
Last month, Sony reportedly gobbled up Bruce Springsteen’s music catalog for $500 million — the highest price ever paid for a single artist’s catalog. Bob Dylan recently sold his to Universal Music Group for $300 million, which was at the time the largest amount paid to a single artist for a music catalog. Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, and David Bowie’s estate all did the same not long ago as well.
This doesn’t exactly scream of an industry that needs help.
The major record labels are already profiting off artists in countless ways. As reported by Sara Barron, for starters, “labels like Sony (which has a reported 5 percent stake in Spotify) make millions from ad shares that could be subdivided and shared with the artists, but are instead hoarded and distributed to executives that have no hand in creating the art that is the lifeblood of the service.” There are also many unanswered questions about how transparent and honest they are about paying artists what they deserve. In the UK, for example, Parliament is considering proposals to make the flow of funds from the labels to the artists more fair and transparent.
There’s a difference between supporting the arts and supporting corporate giants who take advantage of the creators who make it all possible. The American Music Fairness Act would do the latter, and Congress would be foolish to give it a second of floor time.
Dan Perkins is an author of both thrillers and children’s books. He appears on over 1,100 radio stations. Mr. Perkins appears regularly on international TV talk shows, he is current events commentator for seven blogs, and a philanthropist with his foundation for American veterans, Songs and Stories for Soldiers, Inc. More information about him, his writings, and other works are available on his website, DanPerkins.guru.
