Pay for Plays

The Kiss rocker spoke at a Senate subcommittee hearing on a bill that could finally change the way royalties are distributed for radio airplay

Gene Simmons called on Congress to pass new legislation that would finally secure payments for artists when their music is played on radio, declaring that under the current system artists are treated “worse than slaves.”

The Kiss bassist appeared Tuesday at a Senate subcommittee hearing on the American Music Fairness Act, a bill that, if enacted, would require radio companies to pay artists for the use of their recordings on the radio. Currently, only songwriters get royalties from radio airplay, not the artists who performed the track (whether lead performer or backing musicians).

In an impassioned, sometimes rambling speech, Simmons stressed the importance of passing this bill by noting that some of the biggest artists of all time — who often sang other peoples’ work — never got paid for the copious radio airplay of their music. He mentioned Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Elvis Presley, who “never got a penny for all the millions of times” his music was played on U.S. radio.

Simmons said that during the recent Kennedy Center Honors, he asked his fellow honoree, George Strait, if he was aware that he’d never been paid for all the radio plays of his hit, “Amarillo by Morning.” Simmons claimed Strait had no idea and had to ask his handlers if this was true.

“If you are against this bill, you are un-American,” Simmons declared. “You cannot let this injustice continue. It looks like a small issue … But our emissaries to the world are Elvis and Frank Sinatra. And when they find out we’re not treating our stars right — in other words, worse than slaves; slaves get food and water. Elvis and Sinatra and Bing Crosby got nothing for their performance. You’ve got to change this now.”

As discussed by Simmons and others at the hearing, America’s current radio royalty system is a noted outlier. Many other countries — including Russia and China — pay both songwriters and performers for radio airplay, and some countries have even taken to withholding royalties from American performers because their artists aren’t compensated for U.S. airplay. Other countries with a system similar to the U.S. are Cuba, Iran, and North Korea.

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“How do we dare come in second to Russia?” Simmons exclaimed during his testimony. “An alleged country led by a despot, when they do a better job of paying our King of Rock & Roll, and we’re going to stand by and not pay today’s artists and future artists?”

Simmons appeared at the subcommittee panel alongside Michael Huppe, the President and CEO of SoundExchange, the nonprofit that collects and distributes digital streaming royalties. Huppe, like Simmons, voiced support for the American Music Fairness Act. The lone dissenter on the panel was Henry Hinton, a broadcaster and owner of four radio stations in North Carolina.

During his remarks, Hinton voiced concerns about the new performance royalty, calling it “economically untenable for local radio broadcasters.” He continued: “When new fees are imposed, free local radio’s only option is to cut elsewhere. Stations have to make the choice between covering local football games or paying new fees; between making their payroll, or sending more money to the recording industry — an industry currently making record profits, I might add.”

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Simmons, who spoke after Hinton, rebuffed this notion. To Hinton, the rocker brusquely stated, that three of his four radio stations “may have to pay $500 when — not *if *— this bill is passed. What’s your problem?”

The American Music Fairness Act has received backing from numerous artists, who’ve advocated for it in both the halls of Congress and in the press. Other advocates include David Byrne, Randy Travis, Boyz II Men, and Master P, who penned an op-ed for Rolling Stone about the bill last year.