Photo courtesy of SoundExchange

Text by SoundExchange

Greetings, we are writing once again to seek your help in protecting the long-term value of music – including the rates that you are paid for the use of your music on Internet radio.

Last fall we reached out to you when the anti-artist “Internet Radio Fairness Act” (“IRFA”) was initially introduced in Congress. Thanks to your support, more than 130 artists voiced their concern in an open letter protesting IRFA’s attempt to reduce the royalties that thousands of artists rely on. And many more have joined the fight since then.

While your support helped us derail IRFA last year, it appears that the same groups plan to try to reintroduce the anti-artist bill this year. Worse yet, there is a risk that new provisions will be added to the bill in a blatant attempt to divide our community.

For instance, in the past these anti-artist groups have talked about “buying off” artists by offering them a bigger split of Internet radio royalties. But it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that a larger piece of a drastically smaller pie is still a bad deal – and is even worse for the overall health of our industry. This “divide and conquer” tactic is a direct result of our success in pulling together as one community to oppose the legislation last year.

Regardless of any window dressing that may be added, the “new IRFA” would ultimately be the same, unfair attempt to reduce royalties you receive from Internet radio (by as much as 85 percent!!). This legislation is an attempt to pay artists and creators less than their fair share for their art.

We understand that a music career is hard enough work. SoundExchange represent tens of thousands of recording artists and record labels every day, a majority of which are working class musicians and independent record labels. We want artists to make more money, not less, for their creative contributions.

Join us in the fight to ensure that artists and creators are paid fairly for the music they create: Write or tweet your member of Congress to help protect the long-term value of music. We also encourage you to tweet: “Artists deserve to be paid fairly. Join me in supporting fair digital royalties. #valuemusic”

For regular updates, follow us on Twitter (@SoundExchange).

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

SoundExchange