Ricardo J Gonzalez for a Better America

What happens when you rely on the government to do your dirty work, instead of your success? Well, sometimes it comes back to bite you. A few weeks ago I discussed how the broadcast radio industry was lobbying to increase the royalties paid by internet radio. Well, it seems that now it's coming back to haunt them. This week the internet radio crowd got together with recording artists and are now asking congress force broadcast radio to pay royalties.



The National Association of Broadcasters' spokesman, Dennis Wharton said the following:

“The value of over-the-air play so far outweighs these other technologies — whether it’s satellite radio or Web streaming, it’s not a true comparison. Ask any artist what they’d prefer to be played on,” Wharton said.

That argument seems to make sense, the artists are getting a huge benefit and they should have a choice whether to accept the benefit in exchange for not receiving royalties. However, it appears recording artists don't get to make that decision:

The push to force radio stations to pay artists’ royalties dates back to the 1930s, when big-band leader Paul Whiteman instructed his record label to print “Not authorized for radio play” on his records. Radio still played the records. Whiteman sued and lost on appeal, and the industry has been fighting for royalties ever since, Simson said.

This entire ordeal is just baffling to me. Does Amazon.com get to give away my essays, since its good advertising for my books? I am hard pressed to understand what kind of logical court would decide in favor of the recording industry in that specific case. I don't think the government should be part of it either way, it should be an agreement between the radio companies and the broadcast companies, with the government just enforcing their contracts. But now that the radio companies have opened the flood gates with their attempts to squash internet radio, there's a vindictive side of me that hopes they have to pay too, but the entire ordeal worries me.

Instead of people making money based on the value of their service, they are making it by using the government to put the competition out of business. By fighting the broadcasting companies with their own dirty tricks, they might get their way this time, but they have accepted and engaged in trading in the clout economy. I would rather see the little guy win because we was doing things better than the big guy. I don't want to grow up in a world where it's not what you do, but who you know, that brings you success.