Gene Simmons of KISS testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the “injustice” that performers still go uncompensated when their music is played on broadcast radio stations.
Simmons, who on Sunday was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor along with other bandmates, told lawmakers, “Let’s call it for what it is — an injustice that has been going on for decades.” He noted that performers from Bing Crosby to Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra never were compensated when their performances were heard on radio.
He and other musicians and artists are championing the Music Fairness Act, which would establish a music performance right that would require stations to license their songs for airplay. Songwriters already are compensated, and performers are paid when their works air on satellite and streaming, but not terrestrial radio.
He said of the lack of payment, “When you work hard and you get to the top, what do you got? Zipper-rooney. That’s not the American way. If you against this bill, you are un-American. You cannot let this injustice continue.”
“It looks like a small issue,” he added. “There are wars going on and everything. But our emissaries to the world are Elvis and Frank Sinatra, and when they find out that we are not treating our stars right — in other words, worse than slaves. Slaves get food and water. Elvis, Bing Crosby and Sinatra got nothing for their performance. We have got to change this now for our children and our children’s children.”
Simmons said that Donald Trump will sign the legislation if it reaches his desk. His administration, along with previous administrations, has supported a performance right.
Because of the “loophole,” backers of the legislation say, foreign radio stations also do not pay artists in return.
But that’s still a big if. Sinatra himself lobbied for a performance right back in the 1970s, and numerous iterations of the legislation have been proposed through the years. But broadcasters, led by the National Association of Broadcasters, have successfully sidelined efforts. In this Congress, nearly half of House lawmakers have signed on to the Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution to block “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station.”
The bill would provide exceptions for smaller radio stations, or ones that have less than $1.5 million in annual revenue, and whose parent companies bring in less than $10 million in annual revenue. Those stations would pay $500 annually for the rights. Public, college and other noncommercial stations would pay $100 per year.
Radio broadcasters have long made the argument that they have provided artists with a valuable marketing platform, helping to drive the popularity of new works.
Also testifying was Henry Hinton, president and CEO of Inner Banks Media, a small station group in Greenville, NC. He said that stations already are feeling the pinch, and “imposing a new few on radio’s free service would jeopardize jobs, require stations to cut back local involvement in the community and place more pressure on radio stations already struggling to survive. This not only hurts radio stations, but local communities and the artists who rely on radio’s unprecedented reach to engage new and existing listeners.”
