You have to hand it to SoundExchange. They always seem to come up with creative, inventive, and imaginative ways to try to extract money from the broadcast radio industry.
As opposed to trying to innovate their way out of their mess through creative solutions that would be good for their artists, radio, and the American public, they continue to flail away at their long-term symbiotic partners who they somehow believe are in better shape than they are.
Their newest wrongheaded plan is to force radio to pay royalties on pre-72 songs in digital simulcasts. Called “Project 72 – Respect All Music,” this legislation states that all recordings should be treated the same, suggesting that labels and artists have missed out on $60+ million in digital streaming royalties. Granted that this initiative is clearly aimed more at Pandora and SiriusXM, the reality is that broadcast radio streaming will be impacted as well.
“Respect All Music?” Like AM/FM broadcasters haven’t respected seminal artists from the ‘60s throughout their history?
R-E-S-P-E-C-T-?
R-E-A-L-L-Y-?
As noted, this plan affects all “radio,” from AM/FM broadcasters who stream Oldies and Classic Rock, to SiriusXM, Pandora, and other pure-plays. The net effect would be to limit and diminish airplay for classic artists in modern digital settings, at just the time when these activities are becoming mainstream. While pure-plays and satellite radio have been around for only a few short years, broadcasters have played this music – and heavily promoted it in every conceivable way – for decades.
There are many hard feelings in play here, revolving around who’s getting rich, who’s being treated unfairly, and who’s getting screwed. And there are impressive artists who have joined SoundExchange’s efforts, from the Allman Brothers to Yoko Ono.
Thinking about this from a broadcaster perspective, however, you could make the case that if it weren’t for all the FM airplay over these past few many years – especially on Oldies and Classic Rock/Hits stations – where would many of these artists and their music be today? On jukeboxes, gathering dust in record collections, and on DJ playlists at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.
You may remember seeing that amazing Eagles documentary (History of the Eagles: The Story of an American Band) on Showtime last year. There’s a quote from Glenn Frey, discussing the viability of the band reforming after it had split up in 1980. Not long after, Classic Rock radio got going, and as Frey pointed out, “When the band broke up, they kept playing our songs. All the time. It was like we never went away. We were still on the radio.”
That heavy airplay kept the Eagles – and hundreds of other bands – top of mind, viable, and in a great position to cash in on concerts, festivals, and the merch that is sold at these events. Broadcast radio airplay helped sell millions of albums, especially during the CD explosion in the ’80s when collectors started to replace their worn out vinyl records. And all the while, broadcast radio continued to support vintage artists as they toured – long before XM or Pandora or even the Internet even existed.
An onerous fee for pre-72 digital rights will only discourage broadcasters – already concerned about aging audiences – from continuing to support these formats via streams, cutting off a key element of exposure, especially to younger ears.
As someone who’s been in the middle of the Classic Rock revolution these past two decades, I have seen radio’s amazing impact on these artists, albums, and bands first-hand. And the constant airplay, support, and adulation have opened the doors for these songs to be featured in movies, on TV, and in commercial soundtracks, exposing them to new generations of fans. Little of that was happening before Classic Rock radio became the popular, mainstream format that it is today.
But there’s another piece to this pie. Of all the exposure points, FM radio’s Classic Rock/Hits stations provide something that Pandora and Spotify don’t – the stories behind the songs, the local connection to the music, free promotion of concerts when these bands tour every summer, and the ability to interact with even larger communities of fans via social media efforts that broadcasters have supported.
SoundExchange would do well to focus its efforts on creative partnership opportunities with its artists and the FM radio stations that have consistently supported them. Station appearances, interviews, concerts tours, and other promotional tie-ins are win-wins for all concerned. And they’ll simply generate more airplay at a time when the long tail only disperses exposure rather than to aggregate it. Broadcast radio formats still serve as mass meeting forums where consumers of like tastes come together to hear their favorite songs, hosted by trusted DJs.
This positive activity would sell more merch, more downloads, more CDs, more vinyl, and more concert tickets. And not just in 2014, but for years and years to come.
A collaborative approach would be welcomed by a broadcast radio industry that is looking to stand out in an ever-increasing crowd of choice. And exempting AM/FM radio would free up the NAB’s Gordon Smith to spend more time with automakers, while wasting less time on issues like this one.
Why doesn’t SoundExchange get that?