According to CNET, Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins fame) went in front of Congress to argue against the exemption that allows terrestrial radio broadcasters to only pay songwriters and publishers, but not artists, for the right to play their music. Satellite and internet broadcasters by comparison must pay all three.
I’m 100% in favor of making things even between the three radio mediums, as it’s absurd that terrestrial broadcast radio is treated as something special, but I think it should go in the other direction. Rather than raising the rates paid by terrestrial broadcasters to equal those paid by satellite and internet broadcast, I believe the latter two should have their rates lowered to match terrestrial. Some stations are simulcast on all three (Clear Channel has a partnership with XM satellite radio and is also pushing their internet streaming heavily now with their “iheartradio” iPhone app) with three different rates applying. Wouldn’t it make more sense overall to just have one simple charge based on number of listeners? This charge should be much less than it is now, as the radio is second only to word of mouth for how people find new bands.
Radio is a dying medium as it is thanks to satellite (which isn’t doing too hot right now either), streaming, and MP3 players. We don’t need to make it worse.
