Off the record

Here's a headline from today's "All Access" newsletter, "The Performance Rights Bill was introduced in both the Senate and House TODAY, and reaction from both sides came quickly and in strong words." In case you didn't know, they (the record companies) are talking about charging radio stations a fee for playing their tunes on the air.

What?

After years and years of radio giving giving the artists and record companies FREE publicity, those artists and record companies now want to be paid for giving the stations that "privilege." They say it's only fair. You gotta be kidding me! If it wasn't for the free airplay, tons of artists would never have been discovered in the first place. All that exposure cost the artists and their companies exactly zero.

But if congress is actually dumb enough to pass this "tax," I have an idea for radio......start charging the record companies for airplay. If the song is three minutes long, bill the record company for three times the station's sixty-second spot rate. (Either that or flip to a talk format)

Why not?

It's only fair!