Broadcasters, this can’t be good. There is a press conference on the books for Monday 4/13/15 when Congress returns from spring break. Anybody remember the Performance Rights Act, or PRA as it was widely known. Start getting used to PFPFA.
PRA came from John Conyers (D-MI) and others.
Conyers is back with PFPFA, or the Fair Play Fair Pay Act of 2015, and with him are Gerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
Recording industry advocacy musicFIRST Coalition will be on hand at the presser, along with representatives from other organizations and “prominent artists, performers and musicians.”
The conference will be held at SAG headquarters in New York City.
NAB’s Dennis Wharton was quick with a response. He said, “NAB will strongly oppose the legislation reportedly being introduced by Rep. Nadler on Monday. It is disappointing that this bill retreads years-old policy positions rather than advancing the copyright dialogue through policies that help grow the entire music ecosystem. NAB stands ready to work with Congress on a balanced music licensing proposal that promotes innovation and recognizes the benefit of our free locally-focused platform to the benefit of artists and listeners. We’re pleased that, in a little over three months into the new Congress, 147 House Members and 11 Senators already agree that the fees proposed by Rep. Nadler would kill jobs, hurt artist promotion and devastate local economies across America.”
RBR+TVBR observation: This of course comes as no surprise. The NAB has already been hard at work signing up co-sponsors for the counter measure to PFPFA, the Local Radio Freedom Act.
The core issue, of course, is the value of airplay to musicians.
For decades, Congress has recognized the symbiotic relationship between airplay and success for the musician who gets it. The evidence that it still exists and works just fine, thank you very much, is that the recording industry still actively seeks airplay, as much as it can get.
If airplay was such a horrible abuse, this would not be the case, correct?
At any rate, this issue resurfaces on Capitol Hill with clockwork regularity every few years, or so it seems. So here we go again.
