Time to Change the Cruel Business of Music Compensation
By Dr. Richard James Burgess MBE
When most people hear a song—whether on a streaming platform, on the radio, or on social media—their first instinct is to decide whether they like it or not. What almost no one pauses to consider is what it actually takes to bring that recording into the world. After more than fifty years in this industry—as a musician, singer, songwriter, producer, composer, author, manager, and now as an advocate—I can say with certainty: it takes a village. And when that village is working at its best, the result is a genuine work of art that inspires millions.
Imagine that members of your family were part of the team that created one of those recordings. It’s played thousands of times on AM/FM radio, helping generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue for broadcasters. Now imagine that those creators—and the independent record label that paid to make the recording, for the studio time, the marketing, the promotion, and often the tour support—received nothing for their work.
That is the lived reality for hundreds of thousands of American music creators and the independent labels who invest in them.
Only three countries in the world—the United States, Iran, and North Korea—allow the medium by which someone hears a song to determine whether the people who recorded it get paid. Stream a track on Spotify or Apple Music? The artist and their label are compensated. Listen on SiriusXM? Same. But switch on your car’s AM/FM radio and suddenly that exact same recording becomes free for broadcasters to use to fund their businesses. If it weren’t so damaging to music creators and American music culture, it would just be considered absurd.
However, there are clear winners in this broken system--the broadcast giants like iHeart that are using artists’ and labels’ recordings to generate billions of dollars annually in advertising revenue, directly from the music its stations play—all while paying nothing for the very music that keeps their audiences tuned in.
And who loses?
All recording artists, whose music is used by AM/FM radio, are missing out on a share of the revenue generated by the use of their work. The global megastars at least have diversified revenue streams that means their losses from the unpaid use of their recordings impact their lives and careers less. However independent artists and their independent record labels that finance, record, manufacture, market, and promote the vast majority of new music are losing vital income that helps sustain their, often fragile, businesses and artistic careers.
Independent labels are small businesses. They are entrepreneurs who take financial risk on every project, who pay for studio time, producers, engineers, mixers, publicists, promotion campaigns, video content, digital advertising, and tour support. They invest first and get paid last.
As President & CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), I represent this community—the economic and creative backbone of American music and an essential element of the US economy. Independent labels and artists now account for nearly half of all recorded music consumption and more than half of the nominees at the 66th Grammy Awards. These are exactly the types of small businesses lawmaker’s champion.
For these creators and the labels that invest in them, every revenue stream matters. There is no safety net. A performance royalty from radio could be the difference between an independent label staying afloat or shuttering, and between an artist continuing to be able to make music or having to give up entirely.
Fortunately, there is a straightforward fix: the American Music Fairness Act (S.326).
Its premise is beautifully simple—if you use recorded music to generate revenue, you share a small amount of that revenue with the people and businesses who created, recorded, and funded the process. When the American Music Fairness Act becomes law, US based AM/FM broadcasters would finally pay performance royalties, just as digital services, and broadcasters in other countries already do.
Importantly, the legislation protects small broadcasters. Commercial stations earning under $1.5 million annually would pay just $500 per year—less than two dollars a day for unlimited access to recorded music. Public, college, and noncommercial stations would pay no more than $100 per year, with even lower rates for the smallest outlets.
So, the next time billion-dollar corporations trot out small, hometown stations as shields, remember this: the National Association of Broadcasters charges those same stations more to attend its Las Vegas convention than the stations would pay annually to compensate artists and labels fairly.
As I prepare to step down after a decade at the helm of A2IM, I’m encouraged to see momentum growing behind the American Music Fairness Act. Senators Blackburn, Padilla, Tillis, and Booker are leading the charge in the Senate, with Representatives Issa and Nadler advancing the effort in the House. More than 300 major artists have already voiced their support.
This momentum reflects a deeper truth: the status quo is morally indefensible. It perpetuates inequity and disproportionately harms independent artists, independent labels, and creators from marginalized communities—groups that have historically faced the steepest barriers in our industry. Fixing this is not just an economic correction; it is an ethical imperative.
Congress now faces a remarkably clear choice:
Will you stand with billion-dollar corporations exploiting creative and financial labor, or with the artists and independent labels who make American music the envy of the world.
The American Music Fairness Act is more than a policy update. It is a declaration of American values—that investment and labor deserve fair compensation. It is a declaration that the creativity, the musical art, the artists that have inspired the world, and the people who make and fund our musical culture are worthy of respect. The respect of being able to make a living from their work.
It’s time to end this cruel imbalance in America’s music economy and finally pay creators—and the labels who invest in them—what they are owed.
Dr. Richard James Burgess is the President & CEO of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), representing more than 600 independent music companies.