I must admit that until I read a post from Anthony David's blog recently entitled "HR848 - Black radio stations are LYING to us!", I really had no idea what HR848 a/k/a "The Performance Royalty Act" was. The very little I did know about this act is that it pertained to radio, and since I never listen to the radio, that was pretty much the end of my interest in it. Until I delved a bit deeper, I had no idea the type of deception that certain Black radio stations seemed intent upon promoting. And to its listeners at that. But who's really surprised when corporations rely on any means necessary to lie, cheat, and steal their way to greater wealth?
In short, The Performance Royalty Act is so troublesome to radio stations because it would mandate that radio stations would have to pay a small fee to every artist they paid on the radio, instead of only paying the writer and music publisher. A great example of this was described by David on his blog:
You ever wonder if Luther [Vandross], or his family get paid, every time "Superstar" gets played on the radio? Well, NO. That song was written by the Carpenters back in the day. It was a minor hit for them, but because of how Luther arranged it and sang it, it was a huge hit for him. It plays all the time, and the only people who get paid for it are the publisher and the writer. Luther's voice made the difference, and people tune into the "classic soul" station, in whatever city to hear Luther sing it. This bill proposes that he gets some change for that. Many artists are not writers, but if they are the "performers" of a classic, they should be compensated, maybe not as much, but somewhat like the writers are.
Most industrialized nations, including those in Europe abide by this common sense rule. It should be strongly noted, however, that since the U.S. does not deem a "performance royalty" necessary, Europe in turn does not feel the need to reciprocate. Hence, you being a major star in Germany means you do not get paid every time your song is on their airwaves. It should also be noted that the only other countries in the world who share the view of the U.S.'s are Congo, China, and Korea, all countries with less than stellar human rights records. But I digress.
The music that you now receive free from us - we would have to pay millions of dollars for.
