Music Airplay and the Proposed Performance Rights Act

This book explores the transmission of copyrighted sound recordings to the public by over-the-air AM/FM radio stations which is an activity that implicates the right of public performance under the Copyright Act. However, under current law, terrestrial radio broadcasters who play copyrighted music need only compensate songwriters for the performance of their musical compositions and not the holders of the copyright in the sound recording. Sound recording copyright holders assert that there is no justifiable reason for the copyright law to treat sound recordings differently from other categories of performable copyrighted works. They maintain that recording artists deserve to be fairly compensated by broadcast radio for public performance of their works just as songwriters and music publishers are currently being paid for such activity.