House Judiciary Committee Approves Performance Rights Act

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 14, 2009 - 11:08am.

Washington - The U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 21 to 9 to approve the Performance Rights Act, a bill that would compel radio broadcasters to begin to pay performers, in addition to the already-compensated songwriters, for the right to play their songs on the air. While radio stations in the U.S. currently do not pay performers and record labels when songs are played on-air, stations in Europe and elsewhere do, as do satellite, cable and Internet broadcasters in the U.S.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which represents radio stations, said a performance royalty would benefit record labels more than the artists themselves.

"If the debate is about 'fairness to artists,' why should the record labels get one penny from a performance tax on radio stations?" NAB executive vice president Dennis Wharton said in a statement.

"Corporate radio's days of hiding behind a loophole in the copyright law are over," said Jennifer Bendall, executive director of musicFIRST, a lobbying group for record labels and artists.

The Performance Rights Act will now be sent to the full House for a vote.

http://snipurl.com/i1c4x (NAB statement)

http://snipurl.com/i1c30 (musicFIRST statement)

http://snipurl.com/i1bx3 (DMW previous coverage)