I was on the HU Shuttle the on Friday and they were playing this commercial about taxing radio stations for playing music. At the time it seemed crazy, like YTF would you do that. So ofcourse I went to go do some research. I came across this article ( http://wearecentralpa.com/content/fulltext/news/?cid=79412 )
Himes said these foreign record labels are suffering because people aren't buying CD’s. She said they've teamed up with greedy artists whose concerts aren't selling out because of the economy.
“It's silly to expect radio not to pay me (artists) for my performance on the radio when I get paid for a performance in a club, but would people go to see them or would they have been booked in that club if their music wasn't exposed on the radio first,” Himes argued.
Davies and Himes don't think Congress will pass the bill. If it does, they look at radio to stop playing as much music, or make cuts to improvise with these extra fees.This bill has supporters in both the House and Senate. Congressman Bill Shuster is against it.
This has the potential to be really good for the music industry. A tax would serve as a balance system for the radio. Increasing the prices of the songs being played, reduces the radio's demand for those songs (predominately those songs that the radio plays a billion times a day). With this potential void on the radio, artists in the "free music circuit" could prosper by simply handing over their records to the radio. This would serve as a gateway for the starving-artists and mixtape-artists looking for a big break.