Mark Mays Presses CC Staff For Royalties Lobbying
'Together we can save free radio,' he writes
By Jeffrey Yorke
Updated 7 Hour(s) 42 Minute(s) ago
With the Performance Rights Act's "threat of passage now greater than in the past," according to Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays (pictured), on Tuesday (June 2) he sent an "urgent" e-mail to the entire staff at Clear Channel Radio asking that they sign a petition against the legislation. The petition, at SaveOurRadio.org, will be circulated to members of Congress.
And with the NAB-backed Local Radio Freedom Act just four co-sponsors away from achieving its goal of 218 signatures, giving it a majority in the House, Mays wants his employees to ask their representatives to co-sponsor the resolution.
"As you all are acutely aware, our company is facing a major hurdle that could have a devastating impact on our industry -- the Performance Tax," begins Mays. "The recording industry is lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would require radio stations to pay a new royalty for every song broadcast over the air."
Mays notes that although Congress has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past "on the grounds that there is a mutually beneficial relationship between record labels and artists," he believes that passage is getting closer. Passage, adds Mays, would change the balance of radio and "forever change radio as we currently know it."
"Together we can save free radio!" writes the CEO, inviting those with questions to contact him; the company's top lawyer, Andy Levin; or its chief lobbyist, Jessica Marventano.
Asked for a response to Mays' e-mail, musicFirst spokesman Martin Machowsky said, "He's right. It is going to pass. And it is going to pass, in part, because the NAB and corporate radio has been so disingenuous in their arguments against the bill. If they spent as much time sitting down with us, trying to find something that works, as they have spent coming up with bogus arguments against the bill, they would be serving their members and listeners interests far better."