From an old post by Timinbovey...."The song itself is Public Domain. You may use it freely. If you are BROADCASTING OVER THE AIR ONLY you will have to pay NO license fee, as over the air RADIO does not pay the ARTISTS only the WRITERS of songs. So, over the air, it makes no difference".
I wish Artisan was here to weigh in on this, Artisan we want you back!
If that's true what TIB is saying here is that the performer of a song that didn't write the song gets no royalties from airplay? Only if the performance is also by the person that wrote the song? I know in Canada and Artisan has posted about this, we have license bodies for writers, the performance, among other things I can't remember what for but there's more. I do know that in Canada unlicensed stations, e.g. me, don't need to pay any license fees if only over the air.
It's my understanding Tim's correct. It goes way way back. General gist is the radio station pays who wrote the song, and provides a free platform for the artist to get their material out - ie: the station promotes the performer by playing their renditions, they dont pay them.
OK here's the answer. Yes the performers of a song get NO royalties from radio play, just the writers BUT, only in the USA!
https://soundcharts.com/blog/radio-royalties
OK here's the answer. Yes the performers of a song get NO royalties from radio play, just the writers BUT, only in the USA!
https://soundcharts.com/blog/radio-royalties
That was a well done article. An enjoyable read and things I didn't know. For those not wanting to read the whole thing, the following excerpts pertaining to it...
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Why songwriters are paid instead of artists
Remember, this question is only relevant in the US, ... The reason? Well, the real-life answer is that the US is one of the few counties that hasn’t signed the Rome Convention of 1961, recognizing... compensating them for the public performance of their recordings).
Rome Convention ..[responded]... “If the US radio stations don’t pay neighboring rights to non-US citizens, we will refuse to pay those royalties to all US citizens”. That was pretty much the logic.
As for the reasons for the US continuous refusal.. The primary justification is that radio airplay... rotation is such a huge promotion for the recording artists, that any further compensation is not required. ...___________
I find this section earlier in the article particularly interesting too:
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"...For example, for noncommercial educational broadcasters (i.e., college radio), the blanket license fees will depend on the number of students attending the school. ....The amount of details here is massive, but the one thing you need to remember is that the bigger the radio — the bigger the blanket license fees.
Radio Type and Audience: generally speaking, radio type (commercial vs. noncommercial vs. college) and its audience will determine the blanket license fees — the first step of the radio royalty funnel we’ve mentioned above. The bigger the radio — the more the pay.."
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For future reference.. We have a similar conversation going on at the same time in another thread, which is also in answer to this topic: https://www.part15.org/community/content-media/has-anybstar-spangled-banner-on-their-part-15-station-for-sign-on-sign-off/#post-58854
New from Billboard magazine https://www.billboard.com/pro/fight-artists-paid-radio-play-isnt-over-guest-column/
A Bill That Would Require Artists to Be Paid for U.S. Radio Play Is Likely Dead. But the Fight Isn’t Over
.....Yet buried under these proposed laws and arguably just as pressing is the American Music Fairness Act (H.R.791), a bill that would finally mandate performing artists be paid when their songs are played on terrestrial radio.....