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Should radio stations have to pay royalties to artists whose music they play?

24 Comments

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I say yes, radio stations should have to pay royalties to the musicians.

Conversely, the musicians should have to pay the radio stations an advertising fee for the free advertisement the musicians are receiving.

I suggest the price for each be equal.

Taka

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absolutely not! The radio station is like an art gallery (dis)playing the current works of art by the artist(musician).

The customers (you and me) listen if we like the song will go out and buy it. If not for the radio, how else would the artist get the air time for people to hear their music? There are only so many t.v. shows you can go on.

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No, it's like free advertising. Except it isn't free because the big labels pay the radio stations to play the music they want them to.

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Be interesting to see if an artist waved his/her/their radio playing fees for a year to see how much air time they get and now many more albums they sell...

All said and done artists need to get paid or musci will get very boring.

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yep, that's how business works. they make profit because of the music they play. why shouldn't artists be rewarded for making this music as well?

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DeepAir65,

Be interesting to see if an artist waived his/her/their radio playing fees for a year to see how much air time they get and how many more albums they sell..

One reason we see the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV so much is that it is royalty free. The copyright owners (Frank Capra and others) didn't renew their copyright. TV stations can play it for free.

On topic, I think podcasts are showing us that artists can make money/have an impact without radio. Also, I've heard of musicians who play virtual gigs in Second Life and make enough money to afford new equipment.

But, as nisegaijin as written, if the radio stations are making money by playing a song, they should pay the musicians who made the music. Another question could be "Should bookstores pay royalties to authors whose books they sell?"

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What's a radio?

most of the radio stations in Japan do more talking than playing music, so what's the point!
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I agree with Taka.

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What type of question is this? All radio stations have to pay the artists, music isn't free, radio stations make money on music it's only fair the artists get paid. Publishing on radio has been paid for 50+ years so this question seems weird. It's like saying gas stations shouldn't have to pay for gas but sell it to customers.

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Musicians should pay for the free advertisment, most of the popular songs are not popular due to the great singing, its because the radio station plays it so much... So no musicians should charge radio stations to play the music, and they dont all do that...

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that's allready the case in France.

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What do you mean should? They DO have to pay royalties. If they don't they are in contravention of international copyright law.

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agree with Taka, let there be a money transaction so the gov can tax them all for 50%, but the advertising and usage royalties should be the same.

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I think it would be great if they paid the artists, and not the distributors. Not a lot of artists get paid royalties for music played on the radio. Due to their contracts the money goes to the labels (otherwise known as a music distributor). After "expenses" if there is any money left, some (a small portion) goes to the artist. As others have said, sometimes those "expenses" include paying the radio station to play it in the first place. In the music industry, a lot of money changes hands, but surprisingly little of it ends up in the artist's hands.

So, yes, by all means, let's start paying the artists.

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Of course, why should only the station profit by airing popular music?

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Serendipity,

You took the words right out of my brain. Maybe if "DJs" on Japanese radio stopped talking during the first and last 30 seconds of every 1 1/2-minute snippet of song they played, artists and radios might find a mutually beneficial arrangement that brought more listeners to stations and more first-time buyers to music stores. But as it stands now, music radio in Japan is simply uninspiring.

Taka313,

You nailed it.

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For the record, US radio stations were faced with this problem by the record labels and the solution they came up with was exactly what TAKA stated above. Once the recording artists and labels realized how much it would cost to have their product advertised the equivalent number of times it would normally be played under the old system. They quickly backed off that argument and "gleefully" thanked the broadcasters for their free service they provide the billion dollar recording industry.

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Of course they should! They make money out of commercials in their radio waves using artists music. We don't tune their radio for the commercials nor their bla bla bla, we do it for the music.

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mikekchar: Music distributors are generally separate to the labels and have nothing to do with publishing, artists that sign away their publishing rights are stupid, no artist should sign away their publishing rights, it's not a common thing but some artists do sign it away not understanding what they are doing, always get a musical lawyer to look over a contract!

Artists that have no creative talent and sing other peoples songs (written for them) and using a backing track not written by them have no publishing rights because they didn't make the song, they just sang it. Most of the poppy groups are in this category because they are a creation of the label.

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If an artist has enough clout to get it, I say OK! If, on the other hand, artists depend more on the station's play for recognition, acceptance and sales, then I think the station is in the catbird seat and may not have to pay at all. Take it a case at a time. Why set an unnecessary firm policy?

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labels shouldn't pay radio stations to play their music and vice-versa.

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