Project72 Campaign Launches to Ensure Fair Pay for Legendary Artists

The independent performance rights organization SoundExchange has launched a campaign to protect artists who released music prior to February 15, 1972. Under the current law, digital radio companies like Pandora and SiriusXM can exploit a loophole that allows digital radio play of songs recorded before this date, without paying the artists who recorded them.

In a single year, the value lost on paying royalties for pre-1972 music was nearly $60 million, half of which would be earned by artists directly.  Music recorded during this era accounts for roughly 15% of the music played on digital radio, which includes some of the most influential music of Motown, R&B, jazz, soul, rock & roll, and pretty much every musical style that influenced pop music since.

The Project72 Campaign is pressuring Congress to pass the RESPECT Act (spearheaded by congressmen George Holding (R-NC) and John Conyers (D-MI)) which would demand that digital radio companies pay out royalties for pre-1972 music, under the statutory license issued by SoundExchange. SoundExchange was also at the forefront of a lawsuit in August 2013 against SiriusXM radio for underpaying royalties between 2007 and 2012, as well as fighting the Internet Radio Fairness Act in November 2013. 

Project72 is urging music lovers to write to Congress via their website at project-72.org, and to share their thoughts on social media using the #RespectAllMusic hashtag.

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