{"id":177617,"date":"2025-12-10T18:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/177617\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:02:09","slug":"broadcasters-push-back-as-senate-revives-radio-royalty-fight-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/177617\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadcasters Push Back As Senate Revives Radio Royalty Fight. | Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The issue of whether radio stations should pay a performance royalty was up for debate in a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Tuesday. It was the first time the topic has been considered in the Senate since 2009. And if the 75-minute hearing is any indication, not much has changed over the past two decades. That includes the appetite for lawmakers to get between broadcasters and the music industry.<\/p>\n

The hearing drew just a handful of Senators, all of whom support the legislation. But Subcommittee Chair Tom Tillis (R-NC) thinks interest is stronger than the poor turnout suggests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll see some action,\u201d Tillis said, saying there\u2019s \u201ca growing sense\u201d in Congress that the issue needs to be resolved after 17 years.<\/p>\n

But the numbers cast doubt on that assessment. A quarter of the Senate and 216 House members \u2014 a near majority \u2014 have gone on the record opposing any copyright law revisions impacting AM\/FM airplay. Backers of a new fee on stations point to the non-binding nature of the resolution, but it has effectively stopped legislation from advancing for years.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThis is an archaic injustice that\u2019s been around for a long time \u2014 if you work hard, you should get paid,\u201d said KISS co-founder Gene Simmons. He acknowledged that radio promotes musicians, but said artists would benefit from radio royalties \u2014 especially early in their career. \u201cI\u2019m not here to demonize radio stations. We need each other,\u201d he said. \u201cBut one of those two is making a fortune, and the other one for doing all the hard work is getting zip.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing left little room to make the case against a radio royalty. \u201cI\u2019m a little bit surprised radio is being demonized the way it is,\u201d Inner Banks Media CEO Henry Hinton told lawmakers at one point.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the proposed\"\" American Music Fairness Act (S. 326<\/a>\/HR 861<\/a>) embrace carve outs that would mean some stations pay as little as $500 a year. But Hinton said more than 4,000 stations wouldn\u2019t qualify. And even if they did, it is another in a stack of fees being slapped on radio stations by the government and music industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of small market broadcasters right now that are barely hanging on and understand it\u2019s not $500 \u2014 it\u2019s another $500,\u201d Hinton said, noting BIA data shows industry revenue is down 20% since 2019. \u201cI want to remind people that this ecosystem that we operated has been working for both the radio industry and the music industry for 100 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hinton also shared a letter from country WQDR Raleigh (94.7) PD Mike Biddle, who reported he had 16 calls from label reps in the last week. \u201cThe promotion that radio stations provide is phenomenal, and it continues to be phenomenal,\u201d Hinton said.<\/p>\n

But SoundExchange CEO Mike Huppe, whose organization would likely collect the royalties, dismissed the promotional angle. He told lawmakers that sports leagues presumably get the same promotion when stations air games, but no one is suggesting broadcasters not pay for sports rights. \u201cI don’t know why music should be any different,\u201d Huppe said.<\/p>\n

The hearing brought no mention of the music industry\u2019s attempt to tie the royalty issue to efforts by broadcasters to require a mandate for AM in dashboards. It\u2019s likely to remain part of supporters\u2019 playbook, however.<\/p>\n

If the American Music Fairness Act does somehow win congressional approval, Simmons \u2014 who is close to President Trump \u2014 thinks he backs the effort. \u201cI know the President well enough, and he will sign this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The issue of whether radio stations should pay a performance royalty was up for debate in a Senate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,4975,157,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-177617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}