Canadian Copyright Regulatory Bodies

Same thing here, sort of.  In the USA. RADIO pays BMI, ASCAP and SESAC and those rights are for the SONG (e.g. the writers) NOT the performers. BUT for decades this is ALL radio has had to pay.  Radio has NOT paid for any rights for the ARTISTS and is not yet required to do so.  Although a huge push has been underway by the music industry to force radio to also pay the artists.  The argument is that the exposure of radio generates sales for the performers so it's a fair trade. We present your music to millions of listeners, you pay nothing, and you let us use your music. If this ever changes I suggest radio then start billing the artists for the airtime used in playing their songs, since giving them the publicity is basically a commercial. Recent studies still show that most new music is doscovered via terrestrial radio.

Different deal if you're satellite radio -- they pay SoundExchange that pays the artists (but then again, satellite radio is a paid subscription) and if you're webcasting or streaming, you also have to pay SoundExchange to pay the artists, as well as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the song itself.  But in the USA BROADCAST RADIO does not pay the artist. 

Tim in Bovey

Interesting.

Re Sound is fairly new in Canada, and they're adding tarrifs all the time (they're in the process of adding, or have just added, one for the music played in group physical fitness, such as gyms).  But like I said previously, the performances in Canada go into the public domain relatively quickly (unlike the U.S., which doesn't have anything later than 1922 or 23, I believe).

I was already 50s and early 60s oldies, very conveniently, and I'm moving to add vintage jazz to the mix, so I should be OK - a SOCAN license will cover me.  Now that I've clarified this, I won't be playing any 80s music anymore, but it was a small part of what I do in any event.

I think the artist should not be paid anything to be played on radio. I remember back in the day when they actually had to bribe the radio stations to play their songs. Even sexual favors were being done. So now getting your songs played on the radio is a privilege not a right.

Yes I agree, the radio is the way your song gets known to the public....free advertising. Back in the early 70s radio stations were locally owned and in smaller towns the evening DJ just had records he was playing. I took a song I had written that was on real to real tape and walked in and asked if he'd play it, after listening said yeh, ok. Interviewed me on air then put the song on.

Didn't care about getting royalties, just wanted my song heard on the radio...would have paid him!

Mark

One thing people ALWAYS get confused... In the USA SONGS enter the public domain if they're written before 1922, yes.  But NO SOUND RECORDING IN THE USA is in the public domain.  None.  It has to do with how the law was, and how it was changed, over the years.  So you can't find a stack of old Victrola records from 1910 and play them on the air or in a public performance, and you certainly can't use a contemporary artist (since 1922) performing a public domain song.

But the one loophole that no one will confirm for me (I've asked many who whould know over the years) Since radio doesn't, by law, pay the artists of the songs anyway (the rightw radio pays goes to the song writers) whether or not the sound recording is in the public domain shouldn't matter, as we don't have any responsibility to pay the artist anyway.  So if the song itself is PD we should be in the clear pre 1922.  But again, there were some odd variations in the law back then. 

You of course are free to PERFORM pre 1922 songs in a public venue, on the radio, or whatever with no royalties due.  So you can sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" on your radio station with no issues.  Or hire your own musicians to play it. Or even make a recording of it to sell, all with no copyright monies due to anyone. 

Here in the good ol' US of course, anyplace where music is played for the public, a license is required -- fitness clubs and everywhere else. 

Tim in Bovey

Wait, am I mistaken to think that back in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's radio stations were sent "Promotional" copies of vinyl records for free to promote that record to the radio broadcast listening public?

All promotional copies state "Promotional copy---not for sale or resale" or "special DJ copy -- Not for sale or resale"

A lot of times radio stations gave away vinyl records as prizes for being the correct caller or visiting the studio. Most were marked "Promotional Copy Only -- Not for sale"

Bruce.

In the 1950s record companies made illegal payments to disc jockies, program directors or stations to play their latest release. This was called payola and a few people went to prison.

In the 1960s record companies handed out freebies in a promotional effort to get their records played. I have many of these recordings marked "Demonstration Not for Sale,"

Now the record companies are lobbying to get radio stations to pay to play, a practice that I call "reverse payola."

I won a few promotional copies of LP's back in he day. I got Joe Walch album back in the day. I also got a Gene Simons album that way. And yes it does good to promote recordings to DJ's for free. College stations too got plenty of those albums as well. Now we are in an age of sheer greed and racketeering. How the government accepts bribes from the RIAA to allow this is beyond me. It would be funny if stations all started to play unsigned artists and gave the RIAA the boot for 6 months to 1 year. They would see their sales plummet to the point they would cry for permission to get their stuff played again. Then WE could have a laundry list of demands they would have to meet ending all their mafia like schemes for good.

I've been on the air somewhere since 1972.  Stations I worked received dozens (some stations quite a bit more) of records every week from various record companies, everywhere from small indie labels to boxfuls from the biggies.  They would send boxfuls of LP's specifically to be used for listener giveaways and other promotions. 45's by the boxful. They would send records with personal notes to DJ's from the promotor, or even the artist thanking them for airplay, etc.  And as music director at a couple stations where wee were a "reporting station" for either Billboard or Radio & Records magazines I was deluged with promotional calls from labels and promotors encouraging me to put their records on the air.  To this day promo teams still call stations begging them to play the latest release from whoever. I think it's a pretty tough sell to be calling begging for airplay, then expect to send a bill for the right to play it!

I have over 40,000 records in my collection now, all speeds, all sizes, all types dating back to Edison cylinders. There's an awful lot of promo records mixed in there!

Tim in Bovey

I read an article some time ago (I believe in Radio World) all about how the radio industry boycotted signed music in protest of royalties.  This was in the 40's I believe.

Some stations switched to Talk and some adventurous stations started playing a little know type of music called "Country".  It was the Indie of the time and a big HIT.  All the Roy Rogers, Gene Autrys and so on got a lot of air play.

Eventually a compromise on royalties was reached and things cooled off a bit but Country Music made its mark and played out for serveral years.

I remodeled a local station studios many years ago when I was in building.  They gave me a ton of those "Promotional" copies which otherwise would have gone in the dumpster.

Edison cylinders? Did not know you were that old.