[cma-l] Royalty payments

[CMA-L]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Karl Hartland <hartland.karl at 209radio.co.uk>

Nope certainly don't think that- just after equity and
well-constructed policies fairly applied to all.

On 18 Nov 2008, at 20:25, "Two Lochs Radio" <tlr at gairloch.co.uk> wrote:

>> I'm sorry but I fail to see where a community radio project can be given
>> exemptions from royalty payments.
>>
>> Do you really see yourselves in the same light as a charity using music
>> to raise awareness in life or death situations?
>
> I'm not sure who's comment this was referring to, but please be assured my
> own comments certainly weren't meant to imply that I thought not-for-profit
> broadcasters should be exempt from royalty payments. I was simply urging
> that all not-for-profit/commn good/charitable community-based radio stations
> be considered together when it comes to collective negotiations with
> external bodies such as royalty collectors.
>
> For ourselves we are perfectly happy to pay a fair share of royalty dues,
> which by the deliverations of the Copyright Tribunal should total around
> 8-9% of broadcasting revenue for the three bodies together. Our main problem
> is the way they are sometimes calculated means that we pay a grossly
> disproportionate amount to some bodies, but not to others, depending on how
> they decide to proportion royalties, admin costs etc. Similar concerns apply
> to the Broadcasting licence. As a station with a TSA of under 1,700, you can
> imagine the charges seem a bit excessive with bodies who, for example, band
> together all stations of 100,000 or less for some purposes!
>
> If there were good collective negotiations and distribution of charges, as
> for example the RadioCentre does for MCPS charges to ILR stations, then the
> administrative costs for the royalty bodies could be slashed, by dealing
> with one external body on behalf of all the tiny stations aggregated, and
> the properly due royalties could be carved up by those bodies more
> proportionally according to population or broadcast-related revenue.
>
> I'm not sure how a charity using music to raise awareness of a life or death
> situation is any different from, for example, a community radio station
> using it in a feature to raise awareness about such matters, but in general
> as far as I know, charities have to pay for their use of electricity,
> petrol, printing, rent of conference space and so on, albeit sometimes with
> extra tax breaks, so it wouldn't seem inconsistent for them to have to pay
> music royalties when they use it. But that is something for them to
> negotiate to their best advantage like anythign else I guess.
>
> Alex