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Posted in industry | music | radio on November 16, 2007
Radio royalties, The Senate & Lyle Lovett
Musicians who add the guitar riff or bass groove to "bring a song to life" should be paid when their work is played on the radio, four-time Grammy winner Lyle Lovett told a Senate panel on Tuesday.More @ The Washinton Post, Coolfer, and Billboard.Lovett, testifying the morning after a local gig, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider legislation requiring commercial radio to pay royalties to performers when they play their songs. Songwriters already receive such payments.
"This issue is not about me. It's about the thousands of performers across the country who work so hard to earn livings that are so modest in relation to their talent," Lovett said.
Lovett said the musicians often are critical to the songs. "Those are people who are usually not credited as writers of a song, but are extremely influential in bringing a song to life and are very much a part of the creative process," he said. [AP]
Posted on November 16, 2007 11:21 AM
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Comments (6)
That Washington Post article is hillarious. It almost felt like reading the Onion. Unfortunately the issue itself was hardly addressed.
Could someone enlighten me and others who are confused? Is it radio stations who pay royalties to songwriters and who would pay performers if a law like this passed? The article seemed to suggest that.
Also, I wonder how this would be defined...like would every second violin receive a royalty check every time the Lorin Mazel conducted Beethoven's 7th was played on WNYC or QXR? Do conductor's receive royalties? How would such a law (or would it even bother to) make distinctions between said violin players "contribution" and, for another antiquated example, Charlie McCoy's bass playing on Dylan's John Wesley Harding, which absolutely makes the record and clearly comes from his own deep well of creativity?
Posted by Trevor | November 16, 2007 11:55 AM
Read the RAIN Newsletter regularly to keep up with this topic:
http://www.kurthanson.com/
It is very important for our community to be well-informed on this topic as it affects much of what we care about here: music distribution, band exposure, our favorite internet stations, etc.
Sorry for the preachy tone, I feel strongly about this topic
Posted by hipster replacement | November 16, 2007 11:58 AM
according to the AP article, "Lovett noted that the "us" included background musicians as well as the featured artists." So the radio stations that play Beethoven's 7th (ie small listener-supported stations) will be shelling out to a lot of second violinists.
Where's all this money supposed to come from?
n.b. Lovett played Bush's inaugural ball.
Posted by Anonymous | November 16, 2007 12:26 PM
yeah, at least theyre attacking the real issues...don't bother with our pathetic dollar situation or mortgage crisis...
Posted by Anonymous | November 16, 2007 1:09 PM
>>>Where's all this money supposed to come from?
maybe this way ?
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2007/08/a_letter_from_a_1.html
shouldn't the musicians , take this issue up with the songwriters in the first place ?
Posted by RT | November 16, 2007 2:16 PM
Anon. 1:09 : Boo-fucking-hoo, our dollar can't buy as much imported stuff as it used to. Cry me a fucking river, materialistic pig.
Posted by Anonymous | November 16, 2007 9:22 PM