Gene Simmons has testified on the “injustice” of artists not getting paid when their music is broadcast on radio stations.
On Tuesday, the KISS frontman appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property for a hearing titled Balancing the Interests of Local Radio, Songwriters, and Performers in the Digital Age.
Along with other industry leaders, Simmons offered his thoughts on the American Music Fairness Act, a bill which could require corporate broadcasters to “fairly compensate artists, session musicians, and vocalists when they play their songs on AM/FM radio”.
“I’m here to kindly ask all of you, both Republicans and Democrats, to help us remedy a situation, an injustice. Let’s call it for what it is, an injustice that’s been ongoing for many, many decades,” he declared. “Bing Crosby recorded perhaps one of the biggest songs of all time, (1942’s) White Christmas. What’s more American than that? It’s been on radio, AM and FM, millions of times, every Christmas… That’s America’s song. Everyone receives money – the radio station that sold advertising, the plumber who fixed the plumbing got paid, the disc jockey got paid, the only person who was never paid for airplay was Bing Crosby. Which is astonishing.”
The bill protects small or local radio stations by making exemptions for outlets with less than $1.5 million (£1.2 million) in annual revenue and whose parent companies make less than $10 million (£7.5 million) in overall annual revenue.
Simmons went on to argue that even icons like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra didn’t “get a penny” for radio play, and claim that it was an issue of patriotism.
Additionally, the rocker insisted U.S. President Donald Trump would sign the bill should it get to his desk.
“If you are against this bill, you are un-American. It looks like a small issue. There are wars going on and everything,” the 76-year-old fired. “We have got to change this now for our children and our children’s children. We have to do it today because AI is right around the corner, this is an archaic injustice.”
Elsewhere in the hearing, Henry Hinton, president and chief executive of Inner Banks Media, opposed Simmons’s argument, claiming that radio stations are already under a lot of financial pressure as they are already paying copyright royalties to performing rights organisations like ASCAP and SoundExchange.
“Radio is free to our listeners, but it is not free to those of us who provide it,” he stated.
Simmons’s comments come shortly after he was bestowed with a medal by Trump as part of the Kennedy Center Honors in recognition of his contributions to the music industry.
