RIAA may target radio broadcasters & listeners next

Following the RIAA’s success in a jury civil trial that resulted in Jammie Thomas being fined $222,000 in damages, this DailyTech article takes a look at what the RIAA may sue next, with the Radio looking to be the next target.  Going by this detailed article on The Register, the recording industry made $11.5 billion in sales last year, while broadcast radio makes a steady $20 billion in advertising revenue. 

While radio broadcasters must pay songwriters and publishers for the music they play, the artists and labels don’t get anything, so as a result, the record companies are seriously looking for a change.  As radio was seen as a way of promoting music resulting in people buying music, this is where the artists and labels benefited, so as a result broadcasters were not forced into paying royalties for the performance of recordings.  However, with the major growth of radio, especially digital services, such as Internet radio, the RIAA has helped require recording performance royalties to be paid on all digital services, including Internet radio.  The RIAA and SoundExchange which receives sound recording performance royalties are currently in the process of trying to push Congress to require terrestrial radio broadcasters to also pay performance royalties.

While most radio listeners may feel like they have little to fear, simply playing a radio where other people can hear it can be considered copyright infringement.  In the UK where businesses need to pay royalties to run a radio, the car repair firm Kwik-Fit was recently sued for letting its staff listen to the radio and charged £200,000 in damages.  Going by this BBC report, the Performing Rights Society which collects royalties for songwriters and performers carried out a countrywide inspection, recording over 250 incidents of audible music from Kwik-Fit service stations.  The company claimed to have a policy banning staff the use of personal radios in the workplace and thus did not pay any royalties.

With declining music sales, it is quite clear that the record industry will try just about anything to boost its revenue again, with the continuous RIAA lawsuit campaign being just an example.