Recording Industry Lobbies for Bailout

In the movie the “Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy pulls back the curtain on the mighty Wizard only to discover not an omnipotent Wizard but a simple man pretending to be all-powerful. The music industry plays a similar game, only in reverse.  Rather than project an image raw power, industry lobbyists like to claim the image of the meek and struggling songwriter who is just looking for a fair shake in life. 

Radio airplay of music is essentially free promotion that artists could never afford to pay for if radio stations could charge them for playing their music.  For the past year, lobbyists for the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) have been working the halls of Congress to enact a “performance tax,” upsetting over nearly a century of mutual cooperation between performers and local radio stations.  If their legislation were enacted, radio stations would be forced to pay a fee when songs are played on the radio.

To press their case, radio ads attacking members of Congress opposed to the imposition of a new tax are appearing in congressional districts throughout the nation.  Struggling artists who collected funds by playing music on street corners and taking a collection did not pay for the ads.  Instead the corporate chieftains of the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) and its non-profit SoundExchange finance them.  “It’s hard enough to make a living as a musician,” the ads lament, “and even harder when your own representatives in Congress won’t support your basic right to fair pay for your work.”  The message is clear: raise rates on consumers and hand us your money or the Congressman gets it.

It’s bad enough industry executives are hiding behind the curtains claiming to be the voice for the struggling artists.  The real outrage is that if the bill became law, the government would grant those funding the campaign the exclusive monopoly to determine what the rate of the tax would be.

The legislation the ad campaign is promoting would grant SoundExchange, the funders of the attack ads, sole authority to set royalty rates, collect and distribute royalties and of course, take a slice of the profit for their trouble.  That’s the moral equivalent of a Wall Street bank running an ad attacking Congressmen for not voting to bail them out and then giving them the power to determine the rate of the bailout.

Members of Congress who have taken the position against taxing radio stations on the behest of Hollywood and Nashville deserve a pat on the back for having the courage to say no.  If you happen to hear one of these ads in your congressional district, remember who is really standing behind the curtain.