A lot goes into building a house from the ground up.
After finding a location and purchasing the property, architects and engineers design plans for the home to ensure it adheres to zoning jurisdiction code requirements. After rounds of securing permits, a contractor breaks ground, a firm foundation is laid, construction workers frame the walls and the roof is installed. Next comes a parade of plumbers and electricians, and post-dry wall painters. The interior designer places the finishing touches.
Needless to say, a lot of parties are involved. So is a lot of time and money.
Same goes for recording a song.
After the music and lyrics are written, musicians meet up with engineers at the studio to lay down the performance track and lead instruments. After the instrumental track is perfected, then the artist lays down the vocals. The artists collaborate with producers to make editing decisions before the mastering engineer finalizes the recording, reaching the finished product.
Needless to say, a lot of parties are involved. So is a lot of time and money.
Luckily for the construction industry, everyone involved in building a house is fairly compensated for the hard work they put into creating something beautiful for others to enjoy.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in the music industry.
When a song is finally shared with the world, the artists who created it do not receive a cent from the radio stations that profit off of their music by playing it on-air and selling it for millions in advertising profits.
Richard Burgess, CEO of A2IM, hit the nail on the head when he told Billboard, “You have a situation where terrestrial radio is making more money from music than the entire music industry is making from music—if that’s not wrong than I don’t know what is. These people need to fess up and start paying musicians.”
People who work hard—whether they’re building a house or creating a song—deserve to be paid fairly for their work, especially when others are making a profit off of it.
The Fair Play Fair Pay Act levels the playing field across all platforms. Under Fair Play Fair Pay, terrestrial radio would pay performance royalties for music they air, just like Internet radio already does.
Contact your member of Congress and express your support for free market pay for all music creators and fair, technology-neutral rules for music services.
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