This week, National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) leveled a concerted attack on a new regime currently being proposed in Congress, which would impose substantial new fees on terrestrial radio stations that play music. Politicians supporting the bill argue that music performers, who already collect royalties from record/CD sales and direct fees from live performances, should also collect a fee every time their “performance” airs on a radio station.

Last year, terrestrial radio stations were strapped with a new “performance” fee for web-streaming music on their websites. NRB, and other groups in opposition to this new performance fee for music air-play, warn that it could force radio stations to either close down or to cut-back staffing and programming drastically.

In a letter delivered this week to key Members of the Senate, Dr. Frank Wright, NRB’s President and CEO, says the new Congressional proposal (S. 2500 & H.R. 4789) is “unwise, unfair, and borders on the irresponsible.” In the past, Congress reviewed this situation of music play on radio and repeatedly refused to impose a “performance” fee because it noted the mutually beneficial relationship between radio and musical performers: while radio paid no royalties to the performers themselves, it has been the chief means of promoting record and CD sales, which do place money in the pockets of performers.

For the last half century radio has been paying royalties to music composers and songwriters for the music it plays. Further, the Congressional bill unfairly favors, in rate-setting, public radio broadcasters over non-profit religious broadcasters. Last week Dr. Wright and Government Relations Director Bob Powers began the first of a series of meetings with Senate leadership, urging opposition to the music performance bills.

A written set of “bullet point” arguments by Craig Parshall, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, is being delivered to key members of Congress that delineates NRB’s position on the issue.

CMR Observation

We’re glad the NRB has stepped up their role in this battle. The bill appears to be aimed at commercial broadcasters, and the proposals concerning Public and non-commercial broadcasters seem to be there for no other reason than to keep those players out of the fight. When record promoters stop calling our Music Directors, we’ll start believing radio has lost its edge as a promotional venue.

Tags: Berman, Broadcast, Broadcaster, Copyright, Issues, Legal, Legislation, Performance Rights, Radio, Record Industry, NRB

Blowtorch, the brainchild of veteran Hollywood producer Paul Schiff and former VC Kelly Rodriques, plans to target the college market with an old-school movie studio and using new-school promo techniques.

Schiff is in charge of producing and acquiring a stable of low-budget (under $5 million) feature-length films. Rodriques’s job is to build social networks around the movies, inviting 18- to 24-year-old audiences to gather online before, during, and after the film. Having secured exhibition deals with 600 theaters near college campuses, Blowtorch’s advantage over other would-be film companies is coveted spaced on the big screen.

A typical evening might feature a festival of user-generated short films built around a theme - such as skateboarding, football, or tango. People in the audience will be encouraged to pick up their cell phones or boot their laptops to vote, text each other, and send messages to the producers - all while the film is rolling. The short film that gets the most votes is screened with the next Blowtorch feature or included in a DVD.

The first Blowtorch movie, a twentysomething comedy called You Are Here, debuts in April.

Tags: Film, Ministry, Television, TV

Coleman Insights has found that programming features on music radio stations contribute more to long-term brand development than to instantaneous audience building.

That’s a key conclusion of research in Philadelphia, comparing PPM data to listener evaluations obtained via telephone. “What Happens When Features Come On” is the title of the research piece. Coleman Insights analyzed the performances of 15 programming features that ran on Philadelphia music stations, based on audience data from Arbitron’s Portable People Meter (PPM) service.

In addition, Coleman Insights compared these PPM-based results with listener evaluations of these same features collected in a 600-person, telephone-based perceptual study. “What our findings are telling us is that stations should view features as tools for building their brands and developing their personalities and not as something that will give them an immediately bump in PPM-based listening levels,” said Coleman Insights president Jon Coleman. “When a feature truly succeeds, the audience growth happens over weeks and months and cannot usually be seen in a single airing,” he added.

Indeed, the study found that audiences were frequently lower for features than for the non-feature content immediately preceding them. Well-known features did better than those with less familiarity to the audience. The Coleman Insights study found that music features did generally better than talk features, but that was not universal. The full report is available for download at www.colemanInsights.com.

Tags: Broadcast, Broadcaster, Radio

KMA Direct Communications, Inc. and GodTube.com have entered a strategic partnership in which the two companies share resources to better serve their clients. The agreement allows KMA to leverage GodTube’s technical infrastructure, including video sharing and social networking, in the Christian marketplace.

KMA Chief Strategy Officer Steve Stapleton, who oversees the development and integration of KMA’s Internet properties, says access to the innovative technology enhances KMA’s ability to drive traffic and raise funds for its faith-based and not-for-profit clients. In addition, KMA is assisting GodTube in the development and preparation of its newly added ministry broadcast pages.

Tags: Internet

Nothing seems to be able to knock noncommercial K-LOVE Network operator Educational Media Foundation off of the acquisition trail. This time, it has gone just about as far away as it can from its California base to take another commercial band FM into the non-profit Contemporary Christian world. EMF is getting WMEX-FM in the Rochester-Portsmouth-Dover NH market. Star Media Group broker Doug Ferber, who handled the arrangements, puts the price at 1M. He said that the station, licensed to Farmington NH, is on the northern reaches of the far flung market, above Rochester. The seller is Dennis Jackson’s WIMMEX LLC.

CMR Observation:
Given the depth and duration of the acquisition run EMF has been on, non-profit must be incredibly profitable. While the station(s) can accept commercial underwriting to fund its purchasing activities and programming, they largely rely on donations from each radio population they infiltrate. The question left unasked is, ‘At what point does a billion dollar company become “for profit”?’

Tags: Broadcast, Broadcaster, Legal, Radio

The retirement of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) due to illness may open up the top slot at the House Foreign Affairs Committee for Howard L. Berman (D-CA), a move which would move him out of the chairs at Judiciary’s Copyright Subcommittee, where he has been a big advocate for producers and artists over the interests of broadcasters. Lantos, who has cancer, will be retiring at the end of the 110th Congress. Introducing performance fees for music played over the air has been an issue of late, but at a recent hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, some senators noted that it was not yet a front-burner issue.

CMR OBSERVATION:

As the issue of Performance Rights isn’t necessarily a matter of party affiliation, it isn’t likely to make its way to the forefront during an election year. If there is any change to the makeup of the Judiciary’s Copyright Subcommittee, however, it will certainly be felt as the issue resurfaces to pit one industry against another. Radio and Record folks will have to quietly disagree until then.

Tags: Berman, Broadcast, Broadcaster, Copyright, Issues, Legal, Legislation, Performance Rights, Radio, Record Industry

In a dramatic demonstration of the economic toll of digital piracy on the music industry, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES reports that EMI is still expected to trim more than a quarter of the LONDON-based company’s employees and radically alter the way it does business to further cut costs.

Two executives inside EMI told THE TIMES that EMI will become the first major label to eliminate the large advances that customarily are paid in the industry to proven artists. For instance, British pop singer ROBBIE WILLIAMS reportedly got an advance worth $150 million when he signed with EMI in 2002. His future advances could be in jeopardy because of his disappointing sales.

EMI instead will pay retroactive compensation based on how well a recording sells, one of the executives said.

The approach will likely take the record company out of the running for top acts, which can negotiate bigger advances from UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, SONY BMG or WARNER MUSIC GROUP, the executives said. A severe cutback in advances means that “you’re not competitive anymore for A-list talent. You’re asking to be outbid,” the source said.

HANDS will decrease marketing spending but invest more in artist development, the two executives said. Striking deals with smaller bands that sell fewer albums could be more practical today, at a time when well-established bands are less dependent on the marketing muscle of a major label.

“The status quo hasn’t exactly worked,” the other executive said. “We can put the emphasis on a good-quality record that doesn’t sell a million, but a profitable quarter-million.”

Artist Manager Meetings Set

In keeping with his open style about the future, HANDS has invited artist managers to a meeting tomorrow (1/16) in NEW YORK, NASHVILLE on THURSDAY (1/17), and in LOS ANGELES next THURSDAY (1/24), to keep them abreast of the new structure and how it will affect their artists.

CMR OBSERVATION:

What a novel concept: “…put the emphasis on a good-quality record.” Given the excessive advances previously handed over to artists based on what record sales “might” do, paying retroactive commissions sounds a lot smarter than levying new fees on radio when they play an artist’s music, which is done to the promotional benefit of everyone involved. Makes us wonder about their next dramatic move - may we suggest realistic salaries?

Tags: copyright, News, Performance, radio, rights, royalties, royalty

During an interview on the CBS Early Show (1/11) the self-appointed civil rights leader Al Sharpton (I prefer not to refer to him as Reverend, because I don’t revere the man in the least) suggested that Tiger Woods’ dismissal of comments made by Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman were made by “…just a golfer, not a civils rights activist.”

Sharpton and Civil Rights Lawyer/former Radio Host Ron Kuby appeared on the CBS Early Show to discuss Tilghman’s remarks that any young player who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should “lynch him in the back alley.”

Tilghman was suspended for her choice of words, and Al Sharpton went public to make sure this was treated as a racial slur, calling for her firing.

CMR Observation: Appearing on a top rated news program while referring to Tiger Woods as “just a golfer” and dismissing his written statement asserting his long friendship with Tilghman, showed greater disrespect for the pro golfer than Tilghman’s simple - while poorly worded - comment. At least she realizes the only way to beat him is to have him out of the way completely.

Tags: News, radio, TV

The NAB is backing an FCC proposed rules change that would allow AM outlets to operate FM translators to improve their service. “Allowing AM radio stations to use translators will help AM stations deliver free, clear, and consistent service within their coverage areas throughout the day and during the very important early-morning and late-evening drive time hours, which will foster competition by helping to ensure the continued viability of AM radio service,” the NAB wrote in comments filed with the FCC.

Tags: christian, noncommercial, radio

A new royalty form is available from SoundExchange for 2008.

Law firm Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth reports on its CommLaw Blog: “Whereas in the past, commercial webcasters could choose between calculating monthly royalty payments to SoundExchange for digital performance of sound recordings on either an aggregate tuning hour or a per performance basis, only the latter will be allowed for January 2008 and beyond.”

“The form filed in previous years to notify SoundExchange of the elected method of calculation will obviously not be utilized; instead a commercial webcaster’s only choice is whether to complete the Statement of Account form in Excel or PDF format,” FHH continued. Noncommercial webcasters still have their own form.

“Is this a big deal? Based on conversations with our clients, the answer appears clearly to be yes,” the law firm stated.

“Most broadcast radio stations offering an Internet simulcast and/or other streams of music online have used the aggregate tuning hour method to calculate royalty payments. It is simply an easier calculation to make, as it requires only counting the number of listeners per hour. The per performance option requires the webcaster to know exactly how many listeners heard each song that was streamed.”

The first statements of account are required on March 16, and webcasters must now be employing software or other means of making the per performance calculation.

Tags: christian, copyright, noncommercial, Performance, radio, rights, royalties, royalty, streaming, webcast