Money Whores

It is high time the record got straight.  Radio Memphis does not and will not pay to play your music.  Period.

It's a scam.

Not long after Radio Memphis was launched, I was approached by a certain organization (local scam artists) who felt it necessary to hip me to this group called Sound Exchange.  Here's a little something from their website "SoundExchange is a non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), Internet radio (like Pandora), cable TV music channels and similar platforms for streaming sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board, which is appointed by The U.S. Library of Congress, has entrusted SoundExchange as the sole entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties on behalf of featured and non-featured recording artists, master rights owners (usually record labels), and independent artists who record and own their masters."

Uh huh...  Now dig this from p2pnet.net "The [un]SoundExchange was originally dreamed up by the RIAA and later spun off as a supposed, “independent, nonprofit performance rights organization” designated by the US Copyright Office to, “collect and distribute digital performance royalties for featured recording artists and sound recording copyright owners (usually a record label) when their sound recordings are performed on digital cable and satellite television music, internet and satellite radio (such as XM and Sirius),” as it says on its site, stating,

"SoundExchange currently represents over 3,500 record labels and over 31,000 featured artists."


The trouble is, as Nashville entertainment lawyer and p2pnet correspondent Fred Wilhelms consistently points out, the not-so-ex-RIAA outfit has an unfortunate, and on-going, tendency to ‘lose’ thousands of the artists it’s supposed to be paying.
John Simson is the organisation’s front man who, “apparently said that SX has failed to track down 40,000 other artists,” said Wilhelms in a post a little more than a week ago."

That said, keep in mind this... Sound Exchange will pay 1 penny for every 32,000 times 1 record is aired on Radio Memphis, granted I give them the minimum of $500 a year.  Think about that for a second.  Take one cent, divide that by 32,000 and that is what they will pay an artist for their performance on Radio Memphis.  That is, should we sign up AND should the artist sign up AND assuming there is some straight up accounting going on which there doesn't appear to be. Do the math, 300 artists (and growing) with 1,500 songs (and growing) so, how much can they make?

ANY artist expecting a royalty check of any substantial amount needs to be aware of this bullshit.  Radio Memphis exists to promote the artists.  If the artists want money, sell records to those who hear it on Radio Memphis and sell tickets to shows and it might not be a bad idea to sell some merch.  I've said it before and I will say it again, if any artist feels any differently, I will gladly stop playing your music. Then, who is going to play your songs?

In the meantime, those out there who feel for the artists, go and do the right thing, buy their music, buy their tickets and for God's sake, my a damn t-shirt.  That is the support they need.

There, it's in print and THAT is the Radio Memphis stance on royalty payments.  Any questions?

Stay Tuned...