· NRB Issues Warning to Congress on Performance Rights
NRB President\CEO Dr. Frank Wright issued a strong warning to members of the United State House of Representatives on Monday, indicating that religious broadcasters will not be the tool used by the music industry and certain Representatives to pass a bad bill. The Performance Rights Act, first introduced in December of 2007, would require that broadcasters pay a new fee, which would go to the artists, for each song that is played on the radio, even though broadcasters already pay significant fees for music they freely promote. Wright calls a “Dear Colleague” letter’s attempt at gaining representatives’ support of a new bill by indicating that it would have “outright” religious exemptions, “sound and fury … signifying very little for religious broadcasters”.

The Performance Rights Act would impose for the first time a new “performance” royalty fee on all radio stations playing music, further enriching musical artists and performers and their record companies. “It is unconscionable,” says Craig Parshall, NRB’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, “that the music industry is trying to create a brand-new copyright entitlement, now for music performers, as a kind of bail-out for flagging sales, when the national economy is struggling and broadcasters are facing titanic financial hurdles. For decades, radio has helped music sales through air-play and it was universally acknowledged as a mutually beneficial arrangement. This proposal of a newly invented form of music royalty tax to be loaded on the back of financially struggling radio stations shows the music industry to be the new Sheriff of Nottingham.”