Another group supporting a public performance right is the Future of Music Coalition (FMC). FMC is a national nonprofit organization that works to ensure a diverse musical culture where artists flourish, are compensated fairly for their work, and where fans can find the music they want. They do research, education, policy and advocacy work both in DC and across the country.

Recently FMC brought Indie Rocker Erin McKeown to visit Congress for a look at the expanded coalition working to win fair pay for air play. Here is some of what Erin wrote for the FMC blog. (excerpts reposted with permission)

I now know I'm not alone in feeling this way. A couple of days ago, I was on Capitol Hill to learn more about current legislative efforts to pass a public performance right for terrestrial radio. I was very impressed by Dionne Warwick, and not just because she's an amazing music legend. She had a really great way of showing how important this right is to everyday working artists. I was also moved by how Representative Conyers talked about the basic injustice of not paying people for their hard work. That should be something that's pretty easy for everyone to grasp, but the big broadcasters don't seem to get it. Or maybe they just don't want to. Either way, it's not fair to artists.

One thing that's super-important to remember about the performance right: it would compensate artists directly for the use of their work. So when you hear the commercial broadcasters and their round-the-clock radio ads saying that it only benefits the big labels, it's simply not true. The artists' 50 percent goes straight to the artists - it doesn't go through the label to be held against so-called "recoupable" debt. This is a pretty big deal, and one of the reasons I support the performance right.

Of course, at the end of the day, it's about artists, who are workers just like everyone else. And people who make stuff that has value in a marketplace deserve to get paid for their work. Makes sense to me. How about you?

http://futureofmusic.org/blog/2010/03/04/erin-mckeown-public-performance-right