Pribek

It’s a hot one in the Ozarks today.

Right now, I’m listening to internet radio on Live 365, the station I’m listening to is called Attention Span Radio 1. It’s a jazz/fusion kind of thing. Some of it is pretty close to the dreaded smooth jazz but, some of it’s pretty good and has some grit.

I’m not a subscriber so, I have to listen to the commercials. I’ve heard a couple of Geico ads. Also, about every third song, a guy comes on urging me to support the Internet Radio Equality Act.

There is a lot of talk going around about how internet radio is going to go under because of a new royalty structure. The Internet Radio Equality Act is a bill designed to “nullify the March 2, 2007, determination of the Copyright Royalty Judges with respect to webcasting”, and thus, save internet radio.

It could very well save internet radio, as it exists presently. If it is adopted one group of people will get screwed. That group is the songwriters.

Songwriters make money two ways.

One: By getting a song cut, and the C.D. sells a bunch of copies.
So, let’s say I write a song all by myself and an artist like, let’s say Tim McGraw cuts it and puts it on his next C.D. For every copy of that C.D. sold, I would get paid 9.1 cents. While it is very rare for an album to sell a million copies these days, it’s fairly safe to say that Tim would get it done. So, at a million sold, I would get $91,000. Pretty sweet huh? But, the reality is that, even if I would somehow come up with a sure fire, can’t miss hit song, Tim is never going to hear it unless I have a deal with a respectable publishing company.

So, I would have to get a publishing deal first. The publisher plays it for Tim, he loves it, the publisher gets half. That means my million seller is now worth $45,500. Million sellers are few and far between but I would have to write them on a regular basis to survive at that rate, at least one every couple of years. If you take a look at any major label, Nashville release and read the writer credits for any particular song, there is usually 2-5 names. That’s just how they do things down there so the 45 grand is generally split up even more.

Two: By a song being performed either on radio, T.V., in a movie, a symphonic concert and now, internet radio. So after a record has run it’s course sales wise, it will still get played on the radio and when it does the writer gets payed.

Here is a quote from a N.Y. Times article called “Music Radio On The Internet Faces Thorny Royalty Issues”.

Internet radio sites are global by nature, streaming musical programs digitally to users all over the world. But there is no one-stop global shopping for royalty collections, which means that Pandora has to negotiate separate agreements with institutions from each territory or directly with music labels.

Well, the world is global and these same issues have plagued the songwriting trade forever. For years, there were countries that didn’t pay at all. Most are on the boat now but the way and amount they pay differs from place to place. Here in the States the rate is mostly figured on an estimate of how many people were listening at the time the song was played. It’s not perfect because there is no way to say exactly how many people were listening. But, the idea is, that every time that someone hears the song on a radio station that is using music to generate income, the writer should get paid.

Now, with the internet and the capacity to gather data, you could tell exactly how many people were listening. That is the problem. These internet radio stations, who are engaging in a P.R. campaign to portray themselves as victims, don’t want to pay per listener.

Here is the nuts and bolts portion of Internet Radio Equality Act.

(b) Transition Rule- Except for services covered by section 118 of title 17, United States Code, each provider of digital audio transmissions that otherwise would have been subject to the rates and terms of the determination of the Copyright Royalty Judges made ineffective by section 2 of this Act shall instead pay royalties for each year of the 5-year period beginning on January 1, 2006, at one of the following rates, as selected by the provider for that year:

(1) 0.33 cents per hour of sound recordings transmitted to a single listener.

(2) 7.5 percent of the revenues received by the provider during that year that are directly related to the provider’s digital transmissions of sound recordings.

They don’t want to pay the 0.33 cents per hour (by the way,what the Copyright Royalty Board has proposed, works out to $.0011 per listen). They want to have option (2). With the second option, a station wouldn’t be required to make money to pay the songwriter. They wouldn’t be required to sell many ads or provide a service that someone would pay to subscribe to. They could just play some music, sell the odd Geico ad, and say “we didn’t make much but here’s the 7.5 percent”. It sounds like they want to duck the actual work of marketing and promotion.

Also the language “directly related to the provider’s digital transmissions of sound recordings” is nebulous. You could twist that any way you wanted and cook the books in ways that would make music biz guys envious.

Everybody wants everything to be ad-free but, these internet stations want to use the music as a device to drive traffic to their sites.

I know a few very successful songwriters that have made a good living in what is a rough game. Just because they have made some doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to get paid for what they created. On the other hand, I know hundreds of other talented writers who haven’t broke through the barriers. I am primarily concerned for these people. Internet radio can give their songs a chance to be heard but, when they are heard, they should get their $.0011 every time.