[78-L] RadioRe: This Will Make Radio Even MORE Dead

[David Lewis]

Dr. B wrote:
In the U.S. we have
never had needle time restrictions, although with a few exceptions the
networks did not air recordings of any type before 1949, so DJ shows
became popular in the 50s -- so popular some record companies bribed DJs
to play their records.  Let the performers get their royalties from the
record companies from the increased sales of their records after they
were made hits by radio play instead of double-dipping with royalties
from the radio stations also.  If the record companies are ripping off
their performers by not paying them properly, don't blame the radio
stations and try to make it up that way.
 
>>>
Bravo Dr. B! As an artist whose commercial recordings don't postdate 1982 I am happy to have my work played on the radio and am not clamoring to be compensated for the spins. Anything I would make would get dinged anyway by a performance rights organization and I wouldn't make very much -- pennies, if that. I was my own record company, and when the music was finally reissued on CD in 2005 it was through another small label and I was paid in copies of the CD. When I need new ones I go the record store in Cincinnati where they have them and pay a very small amount to get copies. And I am totally okay with that; I am grateful not to have had to manufacture and distribute all those CDs, set up the booklet (which I wrote), print it, warehouse them etc. It's all good.
 
Those who would benefit by such a posture are the Metallicas, the Hendrix estate and mainly the big recording concerns whose music is seen as indispensible in keeping the big ol' wheel of commercial recording interests on turnin,' as their products are seen as indispensible to the success of corporate, clear channel style radio. If the radio station where I do my little classical music meets 78s and New Wave show were held to the same standard the hardship would probably be too much to bear. We usually make about $24K a year in donations; this year it was $19K. Music programming makes up fully two-thirds of our schedule, and the only DJs playing clear channel type music are those too young and inexperienced to utilize the resources of our library.
 
In the US, most of the artists were cut out of the residuals game long ago, ergo the reference to "Proud Mary" above -- Creedence Clearwater Revival being a great example of that. In the provision the RIAA put forth a few years ago in the last big go round about this issue, there was a clause that payments for untraceable spins -- like if Cary or I were to play someone's home recording or some other property that's not in the rights admin stream -- would be put into a slush fund that would go towards administration of all this rights administration. Even Dr. Billington didn't want to go for that, but it exposes this whole thing as a bureauocracy for the sake of bureauocracy kind of matter. Artists aren't going to be the ones who benefit by and large -- in the US, were just not set up to make that work in the way it does in Europe. My spins will go in the slush fund, and I especially don't want my original music benefitting them in that way, not one cent of it.
 
Recently I met with a dear old friend who had been in the Jockey Club scene of the 80s, but had married and got out of it. She recently divorced after 20 years of marriage, and when we met I brought my CD to present to her. She was deeply moved by it, as it brought her back to the old Jockey Club times of squeaky chairs, loud, ugly music and our homegrown culture. That is the main reason my CD is out there; if you like it and want to play it on radio, terrific, but its main function is to document a specific and local culture for the benefit of those who were "there." I am a GRAMMY member, and I am not sure how I go about letting them know that I am not on board with this proposal; it will not fulfill any dream of mine to earn the tiny residuals for radio airplay, and it might complicate matters in terms of my taxes and other things.
 
I've gone on long, so let me say that there are reasons people make music other than to make money. That over the air radio in the US does not have to pay for the spins is a system that's not broken; it keeps a lot of music on the air that would never make it on in the first place. This provision would serve to silence the work of the smallest producers and make us feel even more insignificant and without hope of exposure than we already do. 
 


Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
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