Steve Vai has written an impassioned plea for help in getting the royalties paid to artists updated to a modern standard.
The United States is the only country in the world where artists are not paid when their music is played on a standard AM/FM station. Songwriters and publisher are paid, though at a low rate, but the radio stations and record companies struck a deal early in the days of radio that it would be used as a promotional vehicle for the selling of records with the stations not paying royalties.
Times have now changed. The sales of recorded music is quickly scaling down, replaced by streaming where the many artists do get paid. They also get paid with all other new technologies including satellite radio and even the streams by AM and FM stations that go out over the net.
With the severe drop in income for the sales of music, artists are depending on income from touring, if they are able, and the royalties from people listening to their music, no matter the media. That is why it is so important that all forms of listening, whether it be AM/FM radio, YouTube videos, Spotify or Pandora streaming or on-line radio, pay a similar royalty for each performance of a work.
On Saturday, guitarist Steve Vai wrote of the struggle on Facebook and liked to a video of Dee Snider performing an impassioned, acoustic version of We’re Not Going to Take It from a meeting on Capital Hill last April, all in spreading the word on the need for royalty reform.
Hey Folks, Steve here,
Historically when a piece of music gets performed on the radio or publicly the publishers of that song get paid but the musicians don’t. Through the world this has changed and in virtually every territory around the world except America, when a song is performed the musicians who recorded it get paid. The USA has been very stubborn in responding to this and there are many musicians and advocates who are taking great steps to wake up the politicians in regards to this dilemma so that laws can be put into place to rightfully enable a musician who is on the recording to get paid. Dee Snider is such an advocate, God bless him for it. Here is a clip he made to spread the word. Check out how powerful his voice is too. If you are a recording musician and live in the USA, THIS DIRECTLY EFFECTS YOU!
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