SoundExchange CEO/President Michael Huppe and country star Randy Travis testified before Congress at a hearing dubbed "Radio, Music, and Copyrights: 100 Years of Inequity for Recording Artists" on Wednesday (6/26).
Held by The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, the hearing did a deep dive into the Music Fairness Act (H.R. 791), which would require AM/FM radio stations to pay artists royalties when their songs are played on the air.
As part of Huppe's testimony, he pointed out that the U.S. is the only democratic nation in the world without a performance right for artists on AM/FM radio and advocated for Congress to modernize the nation’s copyright law to protect creators.
“Congress must set a standard that creators need to be compensated wherever and whenever their music is played, especially when their creations form the backbone of the business model like they do for AM/FM radio," Huppe said. "American musicians lose almost $300m of taxable U.S. income each year because we lack these protections in the U.S. This is on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars they are already missing out on domestically.”
Travis suffers from aphasia, making it difficult to speak and sing, but he was able to provide testimony through his wife, Mary.
"Music is, was and will always be his lifeline," Mary said on behalf of her husband. "But that lifeline has changed. And we need to acknowledge that. The days of Randy packing a car and trekking thousands of miles across the country to visit radio stations and deliver copies of his newest cuts on cassette, in hopes of having his music heard, are a thing of the past."
She continued, "Of all the things we do differently than we did a century ago, one thing remains the same—the voice is still the mandatory bridge between the writer and the listener. And it's time to do right by the ones that create the sound, the melody, the emotion that keeps the listeners coming back and the advertisers buying in."
Pictured relieved nobody from HITS showed up to photobomb them are (l-r) Travis and Huppe.
