Coming soon to a courtroom, Congressional hearing or back
alley near you, it’s gonna be the dreaded Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) versus the iron-pumping National Association of Broadcasters
(NAB). The two powerful special-interest lobbies are about to jumpstart their
feud with an old-fashioned Texas Chainsaw Grudge Match, one fall, no DQ, with last
man standing rules – just like they do it down on the Mexicali border and in the backrooms of TJ.
Folks, this is one serious game of dodgeball that
nobody…repeat…NOBODY interested in, involved with or engaged to the music
industry is going to emerge from unscathed. Yeah, and did I mention that the
whole sordid affair ain’t gonna be pretty to watch, either....
The precursor to this winner-takes-all battle is the RIAA’s
recent propaganda campaign that tries to get people to swallow the notion that
normal broadcast radio should be sharing some of the obscene profits it makes
by playing THEIR label member’s music on the public airwaves. In a series of
articles and ads running in California newspapers and industry trade
publications, the RIAA’s psy-ops teams have been floating the idea that it’s
unfair to their ARTISTS for broadcast radio to get off Scott-free without
paying performance royalties on every song they play.
Not content to coerce a healthy 7.5% of revenues from
satellite broadcasters for the right to play music, unsatisfied with their
attempts to bankrupt the young web radio industry with absurdly high royalties,
unhappy at extorting a cut from the sale of every single damn Microsoft Zune
player from the software giant, now the major labels and their RIAA attack dogs
have their sights set on a fatter target with far deeper pockets: corporate
radio!
Currently, normal terrestrial broadcast radio pays not a
penny in performance royalties to the record labels, the traditional wisdom
being that radio airplay provides artists with valuable promotion and therefore
stations are exempt by Federal law from coughing up the same sort of do-re-mi
as their less-fortunate off-planet or cyber-competition. Congress would have to
get involved to change this exemption for radio broadcasters. Radio does pay mandated mechanical royalties
to songwriters and publishers, which can be quite a boon to those performers
that write their own material. I’ve know several artists through the years that
made decent scratch from radio airplay even after their label deals tanked and
they’d given up on the game.
The “new” technology-minded RIAA, however, doesn’t feel that
this 70-year-old gentleman’s agreement with radio broadcasters is panning out
anymore, what with CD sales revenues drifting off to other consumer mediums
like DVDs or video games. “The creation of music is suffering because of
declining sales,” RIAA Chief Executive Mitch Bainwol told the L.A. Times in a recent article. “We
clearly have a more difficult time tolerating gaps in revenues that should be
there.”
Unfortunately, a growing number of recording artists are
beginning to believe this horseshit. Brainwashed by the record labels into
believing that they’d make more money if only those crusty old radio meanies
would contribute their fair share, a number of mid-tier talents have swallowed
this lie – hook, line and stinker. It’s unfortunate that these people are so
gullible that they’d actually believe what their labels are telling them about
this issue (yeah, I’m pointing my finger at you Recording Artist’s Coalition
members!).
In the other corner of this match, however, we have the King
Kong of lobbying groups, the stank-ass 800-pound go-rilla in the room, the NAB.
Existing, perhaps, as only a party of one when KDKA first went on the air in
Pittsburgh back in 1920, the National Association of Broadcasters has since
fiercely protected the (special, narrow) interests of its members like a surly
tigress guarding her errant offspring. The NAB is not going to take this threat
lying down. Much like they laid the smackdown on the candy asses of pirate
broadcasters during the ‘90s, you can expect the NAB to come to this fight with
a lead pipe in one hand and a pair of brass knuckles in the other.
Already, the NAB’s mouthpieces have begun to talk smack in
anticipation of their fight with the RIAA in the halls of Congress. “The
existing system actually provides the epitome of fairness for all parties: free
music for free promotion,” wrote NAB President David Rehr, quoted by the L.A. Times. In a letter sent to
Congressional lawmakers earlier this month, the NAB called the questions of
label royalties a “performance tax” on its members.
The NAB’s omnipresent membership is also another important factor
in this fight. “The old saying is the reason broadcasters don't pay a
performance royalty is there's a radio station in every congressional district
and a record company in three,” Chris Castle, a music industry lawyer, is
quoted as saying in the L.A. Times
article.
The RIAA has lined up a strong group of allies in its
attempt to change the law and pocket a fortune in performance royalties,
including the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy™
folks) and the American Federation of Musicians (tools). The corporate-dominated
U.S. Copyright Office has also shown support for removing the royalty
exemption.
The industry has also appealed to its “pocket politician,”
the ever-compliant Congressman Howard L. Berman (D-Cal), who currently chairs
the House subcommittee dealing with intellectual property law. Berman is said
to be “actively contemplating” leading a legislative push to end the exemption.
“Given the many different ways to promote music now that didn't exist as
effectively when this original exemption was made,” says Berman, the recipient
of many dollars in recording industry largess, “the logic of that I think is
more dubious.”
Here’s the Reverend’s take on the industry’s blatant
cash-grab. First of all, there is no “gap in revenues,” no matter what the jackass that runs the RIAA says, and the
“creation of music” is in no way “suffering because of declining sales.” Yeah,
probably three-quarters to four-fifths of all current major label artists suck
from a critical perspective, and probably half of all those indie-rockers so
adored by the Pitchfork crowd also
bite the hairy banana.
But it’s always been that way, from the day when the
Reverend first put pen on paper to scratch out his first album review, to next
week’s release of the debut CD by this week’s American Idol winner (and beyond). Major label propaganda aside,
there is lots of music being “created,” and even if a largish percentage of it
isn’t fit to use in torturing terrorist prisoners – much less your mom and dad
– considering the amount of music that’s being “created” these days, that still
leaves a hell of a lot of decent tunes to listen to. Throw in 70+ years of past
recordings on vinyl, cassette, CD and even eight-track tapes, and the modern
music lover will never run out of righteous tunes to experience.
Here’s the truth, faithful readers: in 2006, the recording
industry sold $11.5 billion in music in the United States. Yes, this number is
down around 6% from the previous year, and down better than 25% since the turn
of the century, but you should remember that almost 90% of this total was sold
by the “Four Families” of the recording industry alone – Sony BMG, Warner
Music, Universal and EMI. Together, these four labels and their associates moved
the bulk of the 614.9 million compact discs that were sold last year.
If these companies are having problems making ends meet with
billions of dollars in annual cash flow in their pockets – much of it currently
from high-profit, low-cost sales of digital downloads – then the issue here is corporate
mismanagement, not a “gap in revenues.” Throw in the checkered history of major
record labels throwing, literally, millions of dollars each year towards radio
stations in an attempt to sway the direction of playlists over the past forty
years, and the RIAA may have a hard time convincing any politico still awake
and with a pulse inside the Beltway that the industry doesn’t believe in the
promotional value of radio broadcasts.
Already some pundits have begun to see this ploy by the RIAA
for what it is – a desperate grab for cash that they can’t get their hands on.
Mark Sullivan of PC World magazine
wrote an insightful piece on his blog, commenting that “if you've had any
direct dealings with record labels (as I have), you know that recording
contracts are set up so that the artists are usually the last ones to get paid.” Ars Technica also wrote a thoughtful
analysis of this issue this week.
The tragic reality of all of this is that the RIAA has
sniffed out a potential multi-million dollar windfall and, much like a fleabitten
bloodhound on the scent of a wild boar, they’re going to try and bring the
beast to ground. Like most instances where the recording industry is involved,
expect the artists to be the ones that are gored before the dust finally settles....
