Anyone paying attention to the situation with independent music on terrestrial radio will recall that the FCC was investigating Clear Channel over payola issues. Not long ago, they reached an agreement that included the broadcast of 8,400 half-hour blocks of independent music on all of Clear Channel’s commercial radio stations. When this news first broke, many parties concerned about indie music were dubious. I mean, we’re talking about Clear Channel. They can’t seem to do anything right. Today those doubts are justified as Clear Channel proves to the world that they lack reason, fairness, and sanity. Here is part of the issue, as told by our friends at Head Wound City, The Locust, and Three One G :
the biggest wrench they’ve thrown at us is this one - they are asking us (all indie labels) to sign away ALL rights to our songs before they will agree to air them. this includes your publishing rights. they have never asked us to do anything like this before and have been playing our music on specialty shows for years. not only are they asking for that, but the agreement is 7 pages long and includes a clause that says if they start selling music one day (which I am sure they will) that won’t have to pay anyone for it. WTF!?
Three One G is an excellent record label based in San Diego. They represent such artists as The Locust, Head Wound City, Holy Molar, Quintron, Antioch Arrow, Camera Obscura, Ex Models, and Cattle Decapitation and many more. They share this info as an independent record label who is directly involved in the situation. Their recommendation of how we can help is to head over to Future of Music.org and watch its blog this week. According to the Future of Music Alert that was distributed over the weekend :
The current issue is so important that we are dedicating an entire week’s worth of FMC blog posts to it starting this Monday, July 9. The coverage will culminate on Friday, July 13 with a special surprise for Clear Channel.
So, what has us so outraged? It’s very simple. Clear Channel, which was just investigated for payola by the FCC, is engaging in a new type of questionable practice: requiring indie artists to waive royalties for consideration to get airplay. We’ve sent out a press release and posted this blog entry documenting the situation, but Clear Channel still doesn’t seem to get it.
So please, if you care about the future of music and musicians, take a moment and click here to add our blog to your RSS feeds. And send this link to all your music-loving, music-making friends. You won’t want to miss a single word.
We’ll lay out the situation fully on Monday, but definitely tune in to cut through Clear Channel’s static. And most of all, don’t forget about the special surprise on Friday. We know Clear Channel won’t.
Sincerely,
Jenny Toomey
Executive Director
Future of Music Coalition
Well, I’m sending this to all my music-loving, music-making friends and that includes you! I will definitely be watching that station this week, and I suggest you bookmark it as well. Thanks Three One G for the heads up!
LINKS
Future of Music Blog
Future of Music.org
Three One G website
Three One G music$pace - loads of music and bands and albums
Text of the agreement between FCC and Clear Channel over independent music hours
What Do You Think? ↓
Start a conversation with this comment form...