Law Requiring AM Radio in Every Vehicle Gets Tossed From Federal Funding Bill

Photo Credit: musicFIRST Coalition

The AM in Every Vehicle Act was excluded from the continuing resolution (CR) bill to fund the federal government. The National Association of Broadcasters lobbied to have the bill included, but musicians and the musicFirst Coalistion want to see the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA) passed at the same time.The AMFA has strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate and would require radio companies to pay artists royalties when their songs are played on AM/FM radio. The United States is one of the last industrialized nations that does not pay artists for AM/FM radio.

The AM bill is directly connected to AMFA because AM radio plays over 240 million songs a year without paying artists a royalty. The musicFirst Coalition says passing the AM bill without AMFA would have given Congress’ seal of approval to a broken system that has denied artists royalties since the beginning of radio.

The National Association of Broadcasters spent more than $3 million in lobbying efforts to get the AM in Every Vehicle Bill passed. Artists from Talking Heads’ lead singer David Byrne, country music hall-of-famer Randy Travis, and Hip-Hop luminaries MC Lyte, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, and Melle Mel came to Capitol Hill this year to urge congressional leaders to not pass the AM bill without AMFA.

“This is a major win for all music artists across the country,” says Darryl McDaniels. “I’m grateful that congressional leadership stood up for the community of artists at this critical moment. I look forward to continuing to work with them to get Congress to finally pass the American Music Fairness Act.”

“For over a century, the National Association of Broadcasters has been receiving one-sided benefits from Contress. Those days are over,” adds Michael Huppe, SoundExchange CEO. “We’ve said all along, Congress should not pass a mandate for radio without ensuring appropriate royalties for artists. We’re grateful that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle listened to the voices of working artists, including the backup vocalists and musicians who are forced to work other jobs to survive.”“They deserve to have their hard work respected and valued with fair compensation, like they receive in every other industrialized country, and that will only happen when Congress finally passes the American Music Fairness Act.”

As Congress negotiated over a spending bill to keep the government open past the end of this week, the National Association of Broadcasters worked hard to convince lawmakers to attach the AM in Every Vehicle Act, which would mandate automakers to include AM radio in any new cars they manufacture.

The musicFirst Coalition estimates radio companies raked in more than $15 billion in ad revenue despite not paying artists a dime for their music. AM/FM radio remains the only music delivery platform that legally plays music for listening without compensating artists.