RADIO IS AT RISK!
We just got an e-mail this morning from the owner of our company about the "Performance Tax" bill that U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is trying to quiety push through while we're all worrying about health care and jobs.
The truth is, this bill will kill jobs in my industry! We have been informed our company will have to cut 50% of it's workforce, i.e. ME, if this thing goes through.
Here's a little info from www.noperformancetax.org
For more than 80 years, radio and the recording industry have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship: free play for free promotion. And it works. It’s a relationship that has sustained businesses on both sides.
In fact, radio’s free promotion of artists translates to as much as $2.4 billion annually in music sales for record labels and artists. And this doesn’t even include the enormous revenues they receive from concerts and merchandising.
But the labels–like many businesses–are struggling in this economy. They have failed to adapt to the digital age, and find their business model is broken. And now they want to impose a fee called a performance tax on local radio stations to subsidize their losses.
A performance tax would threaten the local radio stations that communities depend on. It would financially hamstring stations, stifle new artists and harm the listening public who rely on free local radio.
In addition to this, do artists these days really deserve a performance tax? Do you ever wonder why your favorite artist who sounds so awesome on a CD can't carry a tune in a bucket when performing live? There's an excellent article on it here...http://www.songfacts.com/blog/writing/the_2000s_was_the_worst_decade_for_music_ever_/
Anyone can be a star these days thanks to "Auto Tune". Check it out!
