Nancy Sinatra was at US Congress yesterday leading a group of artists who are part of that campaign calling for a change in US copyright rules that would force American terrestrial radio stations to pay a performance royalty to artists and labels in the same way as radio stations do in most other Western countries, and as internet and satellite radio stations do already in the US. In America only songwriters and publishers currently get a royalty from terrestrial radio.
Commenting on her lobbying efforts, Sinatra told Whispers this week: "They're taking things from artists, musicians, sidemen, background singers - they are taking from them, but they are not paying them. That's not fair. It's all about fair play, basically. My dad started trying to get this done 30 or 40 years ago, and I'm picking up the ball now because it's not fair. We don't have a level playing field".
US broadcasters have long claimed that artists and their record labels get free publicity when they are played on terrestrial radio, though that argument has failed in most other territories and media (it worked for MTV for a while back in the day), and artists and labels point out that the majority of music radio these days is filled with classic tracks that they aren't currently promoting anyway.
Sinatra will testify at a hearing regarding the proposed change in copyright rules later today. Other artists supporting the campaign include Ron Sexton, John Lindberg and the Sugar Hill Gang.