iHeartRadio is on the wrong side of history when it comes to rights (Guest Column)

The business of music has been transformed over the past two decades, driven by technology that has broken down barriers to entry and the determination of creators to control their own destiny. At 66^u Grammy Awards earlier this year, more than half of the candidates were independent. And it's more than just business: the indie movement has allowed a variety of previously unheard voices to take their rightful place in the industry. This makes music and our society more equal and better.

Whether blues, punk, hip-hop or country, America's most recognizable music genres started in the indie sector and today the association I lead has more than 750 members in 35 states and most of them are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees . As the music industry has changed, so have they.

However, some of the most important players in the music ecosystem cling to a bygone era dictated by the motto, “Might Makes Right.”

Exhibit A is iHeartRadio. The corporate behemoth controls more than 860 stations across the country that play over 50 million songs a year. Those songs helped iHeart's multi-platform group — spanning radio airplay and national sales — generate more than $2.4 billion in 2023 alone, according to its latest earnings report.

But iHeart is stuck in the 1990s. It doesn't bother to discover new artists. Instead, it overplays the hits and milks classic songs released decades ago. Despite the growing movement to achieve financial justice, iHeart denies artists and labels payment for their work.

Take some time to think about it. iHeart makes $12 billion a year playing music, but refuses to pay the hard-working and talented people who perform and produce the songs that are the reason consumers tune in in the first place. Desperate to cling to the past, iHeart and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) lobby group have spent nearly $100 million since 2020 lobbying Congress and funneling campaign contributions to maintain the unfair status quo.

iHeart is powerful. But they are on the wrong side of history. And he's about to face what he hates most: a public forum where broadcasters must defend their insane practices. On Wednesday (June 26), the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on broadcasters' refusal to pay music creators for their work.

Of course, the CEO of iHeartMedia Bob Pittman will not testify. He leaves the dirty work to NAB. But that doesn't matter. When the issue of compensation for AM/FM broadcasting is played out in a public forum, broadcasters lose. This is why their lobbyists are working so hard to prevent congressional hearings. But courageous members of Congress such as Agents Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) make sure there is a public debate. And they have a solution to end the injustice: the American Music Fairness Actwhich will grant AM/FM performance rights. This bill would bring AM/FM radio to 21^St Century, and finally grant American artists the same rights enjoyed by their colleagues in almost every other country on the planet.

Over the past two decades, the way we discover and listen to music has changed dramatically, and not just from vinyl records to streaming. We can now ask a device in our home, like Alexa, to play music and it does. Spotify and SiriusXM are now buttons next to AM/FM on our car dashboards. Polls from 2020 found that of the people who consider it important to them to be informed about new music, only 11% turn to AM/FM radio to do so. Even in my own generation, that number is only 27%. All right, Boomers!

We need to update the laws to catch up with these changes. It makes no sense if, while driving, music creators listening to SiriusX are compensated, but not if listening to them on an AM/FM station. If you listen to radio programming through the iHeartMedia app on your phone, through a smart speaker, or even in your car, iHeart must pay the creators, too. That's why they have their hand in Congress asking for a mandate to keep AM radios in cars.

The American Music Fairness Act brings fairness and balance to the industry. Music creators get paid for their work. AM/FM stations must pay as do streaming services. And, because the law protects truly local radio stations, most stations in the country will pay just $10 to $500 a year to play music.

I know independent music creators, which I represent as its president and CEO American Association of Independent Music, could certainly use the revenue from those rights. My members love working with real locally controlled community radio stations, but the behemoths usually don't take their calls. There are hundreds of thousands of artists and other creators hustling and struggling to make a living giving us the music we love.

This approach is fair, it's fair, and it's fair. And iHeart hates it.

Broadcasters try to create as much fear, uncertainty and doubt as possible to avoid doing what is right. They claim a $500 annual fee to play music would decimate the stations' ability to broadcast emergency communications. increase in annual contributions charges its members. They cling to the silly rationale that the supposed advertising value of radio play justifies their unethical scheme. Worse, broadcasters claim they shouldn't have to pay for the songs they play, while demanding that Congress get more money for them when their content is used by YouTube and other platforms.

Broadcasters do all this with a straight face. But time is running out. When the arc of justice comes, iHeart and the National Association of Broadcasters will learn that they are on the wrong side of history.

Dr. Richard James Burgess is an accomplished musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, writer, manager, marketer, and inventor who currently serves as president and CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).