Do You Respect Music?
posted in: Music News
You may already have seen signs of a new movement in music rights. #IRespectMusic is a campaign in support of instituting performance royalties resulting from commercial radio airplay. The US is one of a handful of countries (including such shining cities on a hill as Iran, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Rwanda) which does not pay performers for airplay.
Former Talking Heads frontman and author of How Music Works David Byrne has written an essay describing the problem and laying out the convincing argument that US law needs to change. And as he says:
The momentum behind addressing this issue is approaching critical mass: there is currently a bill supporting artists’ radio royalty sponsored by former Congressman and newly appointed Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Mel Watt; Jerry Nadler is sponsoring it here in N.Y. If we act now, we can fix this…
Step one for us musicians and music fans is to sign a petition to demonstrate public support of the bill.
(h/t The 405)
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