The Stranger:
The lobbying organization musicFIRST (Fairness in Radio Starting Today), which is funded by the Recording Industry Association of America paid for The Stranger’s Sean Nelson and more than 100 fellow musicians to travel to DC to lobby for Senate Bill 379. Senate Bill 379, also known as House Resolution 848, subtitled “To provide fair compensation to artists for use of their sound recordings,” would require terrestrial radio stations to pay license fees, also known as royalties, to bands and solo acts that perform the songs on radio playlists. Currently, stations pay such fees only to the songwriters. MusicFIRST’s position is that this arrangement isn’t fair—”fairness” is a theme that emerges a lot in this discussion—because music on the radio is valuable as a commodity on account of the singer and the song.