Washington, D.C., October 29, 2009 – musicFIRST today accepted an invitation from Senators Patrick Leahy, Orin Hatch and Dick Durbin and Representatives John Conyers, Jim Sensenbrenner and Howard Berman to participate in Hill-led negotiations on the Performance Rights Act. The text of the invitation letter to musicFIRST and the National Association of Broadcasters is included below. The following statement may be attributed to Jennifer Bendall, executive director of the musicFIRST Coalition.

“musicFIRST thanks Senators Patrick Leahy, Orin Hatch and Dick Durbin and Representatives John Conyers, Jim Sensenbrenner and Howard Berman for their ongoing efforts to create a performance right on radio that is fair to artists, musicians and rights holders, fair to other radio platforms, and fair to radio.”

“The Performance Rights Act has been approved by both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The bill includes accommodations for small and minority owned radio broadcasters. Seventy-five percent of radio stations in the U.S. will pay $5,000 a year or less to clear the performance rights for all the music they use. Some could pay as little as $500 a year. And 90 percent of music radio stations would not begin to pay royalties until three years after the bill is signed into law.”

“We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the new leadership at NAB to discuss these and other provisions of the Performance Rights Act. This is what members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and from both sides of the issue have encouraged us to do. We are ready.”

“Music and radio have a great future together. More and more stations are broadcasting multiple music formats on their HD channels. Listeners are tuning in on Zunes, iPods and other personal devices. It is time to create a radio performance right so that artists and musicians are compensated for their work.”

Here is the text of the letter to Bendall, Senator Gordon Smith, president and CEO of NAB, and Steven Newberry, chairman of the NAB Executive Committee:

The Performance Rights Act has been reported favorably out of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. We request that your organizations, as representatives of the stakeholders most affected by the provisions of this legislation, enter into negotiations before this legislation is considered on the floor of either House. The negotiated resolution will be considered by Congress as it takes up passage of this Act.

The negotiations will be led by Members and staff of the Judiciary Committees, taking into consideration issues important to both sides. We ask that you select representatives with decision‑making authority to appear on November 17, 2009 at 10 a.m. in room HC-7 of the Capitol to begin these negotiations. The negotiations will continue through December 17, 2009. We will request a recommendation from Committee Members and staff resulting from the negotiations.

With your good faith participation, we are confident that an acceptable and mutually beneficial resolution to this longstanding disagreement can be found. We look forward to immediate confirmation of your participation.