NEWS STORY: Religious broadcasters, rights groups reach `in principle’ pact

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The National Religious Broadcasters have reached an agreement in principle with musical performance rights organizations to reduce the licensing fees for some Christian radio stations thereby encouraging them to play more music. The compromise forged between the groups apparently will end a two-decades-old struggle between broadcasters and musicians […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The National Religious Broadcasters have reached an agreement in principle with musical performance rights organizations to reduce the licensing fees for some Christian radio stations thereby encouraging them to play more music.

The compromise forged between the groups apparently will end a two-decades-old struggle between broadcasters and musicians and a more recent bitter debate between songwriters and the stations they hope will play their music.


Under the system, broadcasters pay fees to the performance rights organizations, which act as the eyes and ears of composers and musicians, each time they play a song or a piece of copyrighted music. The performance rights groups, in turn, distribute the money to the individual artists they represent.”We are getting far more … fair licensing prices than under the old agreement,”said NRB President Brandt Gustavson at a press conference near the conclusion of his organization’s recent convention in Washington.”We’re very encouraged.” He predicted the agreements could”save millions of dollars over the next five years for our stations.” The affected radio stations are those that have traditionally used little music and mostly feature talk shows.

John LoFrumento, CEO of ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, called the agreement”historic.” Since the late 1970s, a group of religious stations have tried to negotiate with ASCAP to get what they consider to be fairer _ lower _ licensing fees. Last year, a judge in a rate court established by the Justice Department to adjudicate license disputes, issued a ruling helping to lead to the pending agreement.”The judge said … the NRB group is not similarly situated with the rest of the radio industry,”said Russ Hauth, executive director of the NRB Music License Committee.”That allowed ASCAP to negotiate a separate agreement with us from what they had negotiated with the radio industry at large.” The rate court judge said the NRB stations could be treated differently because they used much less music than others do.”For ASCAP, for our songwriters and composers and publishers, we believe it’s a historic agreement because what it does is it encourages the use of music on Christian … stations,”said John LoFrumento of ASCAP.”We’re very happy to come to an agreement with the NRB and feel that this has created a new relationship between the two organizations.” In addition to working with ASCAP, the NRB also has reached a tentative agreement with BMI, Broadcast Music Incorporated. BMI officials declined to comment while negotiations were being finalized.

Hauth and LoFrumento estimated the agreement between NRB and ASCAP would be made final by the end of March.

Both the ASCAP and BMI agreements would result in licenses effective Jan. 1, 1998, for five years, with an option to renew them for an additional five years, Hauth said.

He said under the agreements the base fee that stations pay for incidental music, such as themes and commercial jingles, will be reduced by about 75 percent. But to get that reduction, stations have to play a certain amount of additional music.”This feature in these licenses will motivate stations,”said Hauth.”Even though we’ve got a fee reduction, overall this is going to encourage more airplay that sells more records.” The NRB committee also has begun similar negotiations with a third performance rights organization, SESAC, or the Society of European Songwriters and Composers.

Prior to the recent agreements being hammered out, some Christian songwriters had banded together to fight an effort they predicted might cut their earnings in half. Now, people knowledgeable about the deals believe songwriters will fare better.”The way the agreements have been struck, I think that what will happen is the earnings of the songwriters will not be endangered,”said Frank Breeden, president of the Gospel Music Association.”It also will create an environment so that it will be easier for stations to play more music, which has been our desire.”

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