Lack Of Indie Music On The Radio Perhaps A Matter Of Economics More Than Payola

from the thinking-this-through dept

The UK-based musicians lobbying group Featured Artists Coalition has apparently released a report noting that very little independent music gets played on the radio. I imagine this should surprise... well... none of you. The report appears to suggest that the issue is payola -- the practice of record labels paying radio stations to get certain music aired. The FCC had cracked down on payola (for the umpteenth time) in 2007, but the report says the mix of indie vs. major label music on radio stations has barely budged.

I'm sure that's true, but I'm not at all sure it has anything to do with payola. I'd bet it has a lot more to do with two things: basic economics and the rise of alternatives such as the internet and satellite radio. Based on these things, and the limited number of radio stations out there in a given region, it only makes sense that those stations would gravitate towards music and formats that bring in the largest, most mainstream audience. That's just basic economics. Playing just indie music attracts a smaller audience, and it's tough enough to survive as is.

That said, it's not clear this is really a problem. Those of us who tend to like indie music more had already moved away from terrestrial radio long ago -- and thanks to the internet, podcasts, MP3 players and other alternatives, have no problem hearing the music we like. Yes, there are still a lot of people who listen to terrestrial radio, and those stations do still have some influence on what's popular, but it's hardly the cultural juggernaut it was not so long ago.

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Congressman Buys Recording Industry Argument That Radio Is Piracy

from the and-here-we-go-again dept

For pretty much the entire history of radio, everyone has known that getting your songs played on the radio was promotional. It helps sell albums. It helps sell concert tickets. There is no better way to prove this than to just look at the history of "payola" whereby record labels would pay radio stations to get their music heard. Obviously, the recording industry put tremendous value into being on the radio and was willing to pay for the privilege (even if it was illegal). In the US, radio stations have to pay royalties to composers and publishers -- but not performance rights to the musicians. That's because Congress also recognized that radio was a benefit to those artists.

Yet, in the last few years, with the recording industry execs desperate for more cash and unwilling to embrace business models that actually take some work, they've been running to Congress demanding that radio stations now pay performance rights to the labels. They even came up with a silly study that attempted to prove that radio play decreases sales. Late last year, it got so silly that one of the recording industry's many lobbying groups, called musicFIRST, claimed that radio is a "form of piracy." musicFIRST has been hiring big name lobbyists, like former House Majority Leader Dick Armey to push this view, and (of course) some politicians have obliged.

Rep. John Conyers has once again introduced a performance rights bill which is mistakenly described as creating "parity." It's only "parity" if you think that doubling the tax on playing music on the radio is "parity."

This is, once again, nothing more than the recording industry trying to get the government to force others to hand over money, because the labels are too lazy (or clueless) to learn how to embrace some of the new business models that are earning musicians plenty of money. And Congress has no problem helping to prop them up.

It's worth noting, of course, that among the top contributors to Rep. Conyers recent re-election was the American Intellectual Property Law Association as well as DLA Piper, the big law firm that (oh look!) Dick Armey has been working for... It's also worth pointing out that Conyers, as head of the House Judiciary Committee, just so happened to have recently abolished the subcommittee on intellectual property -- which (hmm...) would have almost certainly been chaired by Rep. Rick Boucher, one of the few folks in Congress who actually has been known to fight for the rights of consumers, and against the RIAA, when it comes to copyright. This gave Conyers, rather than Boucher, control over new IP related legislation.

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