Radio Performance Royalties A Double-Edged Sword

So the music industry used the Grammy's as an opportunity to tout the Performance Royalty issue at a "Town Hall" meeting last Friday. Just in case you aren't in tune with what this battle is all about, the artists want the recording industry to begin charging radio stations to play their songs. This model is based on the way internet streams are charged for playing songs over the net. The performance royalties would be on a per play basis as well. So what does this mean should a plan like this come to fruition? It spells the beginning of the end for music radio stations as we know them today. The fees associated with something like this plan would be so astronomical that many stations would go bankrupt and either go dark or drop their music format for some form of talk format. Believe me, I understand how the artists feel. We all want to "get paid," but they need to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds them. This is a double-edged sword for the artists, because if music formatted radio stations go away then you know how much their going to make from their songs being played on the radio? Nada. Radio has made many a superstar of the years thanks to airplay and in my opinion it has been a win-win situation for everyone. We think radio is in a volatile situation right now, let Congress pass a performance-based royalty package.