SAG-AFTRA Members: Tell Congress NO to LRFA

Did you know recording artists and session singers are not paid anything when their performance is played on AM/FM radio? Our effort to fix this long-running inequity with our recording artist members is gaining momentum. It is long past due for recording artists to gain a performance right (royalty) for their music when it is played on AM/FM radio. However, radio broadcasters are fighting this effort with a deceptively named resolution called the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA). The LRFA directly opposes our efforts and those of our allies, including the American Federation of Musicians, the AFL-CIO and the musicFIRST Coalition. Even the U.S. Copyright Office is on our side.

The Copyright Office just issued a report strongly recommending reforms to the laws affecting music licensing, including creating a performance right for recording artists in radio. The office said music creators deserve an AM/FM performance right and that radio broadcasters’ arguments against it “ring hollow.”

The radio broadcasters LRFA resolution calls a performance right a “tax.” But in reality, no money goes to the government. It is not a tax at all, it is payment to artists for their work.

AM/FM radio pays nothing to performers when their songs are played, unlike satellite radio and Internet radio. That’s unfair to performers and it creates an uneven playing field between radio competitors.

Let your members of Congress know you support fair pay for performers and oppose big radio’s LRFA bill. Click on the link below, enter your zip code and tell your congressional representative to say NO to LRFA.

Take Action Now! Tell your Representative to value the work of SAG-AFTRA recording artists across the country.

Share on social media and encourage your friends and followers to #valuemusic.

SAG-AFTRA is a union that has among its members a diverse group of performers, broadcasters and newscasters. Opposition of this bill should not be interpreted as a personal statement of opinion by or of any specific member of the union.