No Radio Without Royalties: New Rules for a New Era (Guest Column)

Here’s a story that captures everything wrong with Washington: Billion-dollar corporation asks Congress to force car manufacturers to install AM radio in every vehicle — a government tech mandate worth billions of dollars to its bottom line — while refusing to pay the artists and rights owners whose music is the very foundation of their business.

Last Congress, lawmakers such as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries saw through this scheme and stood firm. Radio lobbyists went home empty-handed. Now they’re back, asking for the same corporate handout, and still refusing to pay artists a dime.  

Before you say, “But who listens to AM/FM radio in 2025?”, ask yourself this question: Why are corporate radio lobbyists fighting so hard for this government mandate? Because keeping radio in cars is worth almost $14 billion in advertising every year. And why is it worth that much? Because hundreds of millions of Americans still listen to AM/FM radio every week. 

Big Radio spent over $13 million lobbying Congress last year, which doesn’t even include the millions they contributed to political campaigns, to protect their golden goose at the expense of artists.  

Corporate radio lobbyists engage in a cynical game of claiming something we all know isn’t true. They claim artists should be satisfied that “promotion” on radio is good enough compensation. But the days of Americans discovering music on AM/FM radio are long gone. Social platforms like YouTube and TikTok are where music breaks now. Last year, 84% of Billboard Global 200 songs went viral on TikTok first. Radio adapted by abandoning discovery and repeatedly playing popular songs radio listeners already know — in a single day recently, one iHeart station played songs by six major artists 112 times. One station. In a single day. Without paying a penny to the performers.

That isn’t promotion. It’s exploitation.

That’s why the last Congress rejected radio lobbyists’ efforts to pass the AM in Every Vehicle Act. And why they must again reject it unless radio corporations agree to tie it to the American Music Fairness Act that ensures artists are paid fairly for radio plays.

Under the American Music Fairness Act, small and community stations would only have to pay between $10 and $500 a year to play all the music they want. The bill also gives radio corporations the opportunity to tell the independent Copyright Royalty Board what they think the performance royalty rate should be. If radio conglomerates believe their airplay has promotional value, they can make their case.

For some reason, AM/FM radio companies think they are special and that the principles of copyright shouldn’t apply to them. Every other platform pays artists for the work they do. Spotify. Pandora. SiriusXM. Only AM/FM radio — the most established music platform — claims it should be exempt from this concept.

For years, corporate radio lobbyists engaged in cynical practices to block music legislation. But now they are the ones who want Congress to act. And that gives music creators power — and they are speaking out with one voice. 

Over 300 artists – from Aerosmith to Barbra Streisand to Jelly Roll to Mariah Carey – wrote Congress earlier this year calling for passage of the American Music Fairness Act. This was an unprecedented display of artist unity for fair pay. 

And just this week, Boyz II Men, Gloria Gaynor, Mike Love, Sammy Hagar, Smokey Robinson and others called on congressional leaders to pair the AM bill with the American Music Fairness Act. Their message was simple: “When you save the radio industry by mandating its technology remain in cars, we ask that you save the musician too and allow us to be paid fairly when our music is played.”

Artists have never been this fired up. Perhaps that’s because, like the rest of America, they are fed up with our workers being taken advantage of. This is about priorities. Big Radio corporations want Congress to mandate that their product be installed in every new car sold in America — government intervention to protect corporate profits. Meanwhile, musicians are simply asking to be paid for their work.

The solution is simple: If radio corporations want billions in government-mandated protection, they need to start paying the workers whose labor generates their wealth. 

No corporate handouts without worker fairness. No radio without royalties.

Michael Huppe is the president and CEO of SoundExchange, where he champions creators and spearheads the use of technology, data and advocacy to power the future of music. To date, SoundExchange has distributed more than $12 billion in digital performance royalties to a growing community of more than 800,000 music creators. Michael is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, a published author, lecturer and active community member. He is a member of YPO, Forbes Business Council, and Fortune Brainstorm Trust, with opinions published in Variety, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard and The Hill.