[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 29051]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SINGING THE BLUES

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, radio stations pay a set contract amount for 
recording label companies to play their songs. Part of that money goes 
to the writer of the songs for each time the song is aired. But the 
performers get a set fee from the record label company, no matter how 
many times their songs are played on the radio.
  Now the performers want the Federal Government to charge radio 
stations a performance fee each time the song is played. That money 
would go to the performer. In other words, tax radio stations to 
subsidize the performers because, God bless them, they just don't make 
enough money.
  The Federal Government has no business interfering in the free market 
and subsidizing performers at taxpayers' expense. The music artists and 
their agents should work out a better contract with their recording 
companies.
  The proposal to subsidize recording artists would require the cost to 
be passed on to the consumers by higher advertising fees. Plus, the 
whole concept smacks in the face of freedom of the airwaves.
  The Federal Government needs to stay out of the radio control 
business, even if performers are just ``Singing the Blues.''
  And that's just the way it is.

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