The music industry group behind the Grammy Awards wants radio stations to start forking over royalties to the songs’ performers.
Music streaming companies like Pandora and Spotify already pay performers a fee and since most terrestrial radio stations are streaming their signal they should get in line and pay up, according to Neil Portnow, the president of The Recording Academy.
Terrestrial stations pay a fee to the publisher of a song they play, which is passed on to the songwriter — but not the performer.
Those payments should be extended to performers, Portnow told members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet at a hearing on Tuesday.
Radio stations have argued they shouldn’t have to pay such a fee because their promotional firepower creates huge hits for record labels, resulting in up to $2.5 billion of record sales annually — and that benefits performers.
“Low streaming rates [industrywide] prevent creators from making a living,” Portnow told lawmakers.
“Traditional radio continues to use artists’ recordings without compensation, while leveraging this unfair advantage as they move into the digital world,” he added.
The House is looking at a whole range of issues on how the music revenue pie is divided and some are calling for a set royalty covering all outlets. Now, Pandora, SiriusXM and others pay different rates.
“Our current system does not ensure payment for creators when their works are used by others,” John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “This is an injustice that we need to address.”