Where's the good life? Tony Bennett wants pay for performers wh...

Do you not have enough money Tony? How greedy can you be?
People all over the country and world are suffering from huge financial losses and all Tony Bennet can think of is how he has been getting ripped off because more people are not paying for his music. Tony, has the phrase "be thankful for what you have" mean anything to you? I have paid for his music and shows many times but no more.

Good luck with that, Tony. I'm on your side, but with radio now a dead end business, Clear Channel cutting jobs and matching their 401(k) contributions, and the economy in the dumper, you might as well try fishing in a dried up lake.

Once again the recording industry wants more money because they have no business model in the Internet age. As the Association of Broadcasters stated, playing music on the radio will drive people to purchase the music and attend concerts.

In reality the albums should be free as well, provided online so listeners can discover new bands. If you actually like the music then you buy concert tickets and possibly merchandise. But charging struggling radio stations even more money just because the record labels aren't on the gravy train of yesteryear is stupid. The people have already spoken when it comes to the RIAA charging $15 for a CD by illegally downloading them...when will they learn?

It seems to me that as a "talk radio" listener, it's rare that I hear music on radio if at all. In my car I keeps a CD to listen to when I need a music "fix". It's interesting that the top two most popular radio stations in Chicago, WBBM and WGN are talk radio stations. Apparently the majority of people listen to radio for news and sports and just plain talk. I believe that a large number of people who like music are using iPods and CD/DVD devices not to mention computers to get their music fix. Sounds like the law would be a waste of time, and would reduce the number of music based radio stations. As to the concern for musicians who sat in on the original recording session, they got paid for their work, and they are now doing something else. If I go home today and do not return to my job, I was paid for my work and will receive not one more penny for the work I performed in the past. It seems fair to me, so it should be fair to the musicians.

Tony Bennett is great at Ravinia. I never though I would like him until we went to see him at Ravinia and saw his paintings there. What a great evening as it was our 15th Wedding Anniversary what a great evening for us and our friends and family! Maybe WNUA Ramsey Lewis should play his music and other people like him at on time a week as a featured artist. That might satisfy everyone.

All intelligent points by the commenters. I think this might be a pub move for Tony even though he is a nice guy (from what I understand). Really I agree that if you didn't write the material and only sang or played on the track your payment for the session should be considered PIF in regards to radio airplay. More of the problems I hear on the recording end are the labels not getting due cash to the artists. Especially from the many groups that I grew up listening to. Somewhere along the line the royality money never got to the act.

They should also have to pay to air interviews with artists plugging new albums. It's insane for artists and labels to pay for the backing talent when radio and TV should be doing that for them. Next thing you know, the radio stations will think they are actually on the same side as the artists. Codependent even. Totally ludicrous.

ASCAP etal should also hit up the bars and stores for even more money for playing radio and CDs for customers.

Regarding charging for airing interviews of artists... the artists should be payin the radio station for the air time plugging their songs, plays, books, etc. It is free advertising to them.

Now the "Government Board" would set the amount paid to artists. Chairman Maobama and the Dumbocrats at their Socialist worst.

let the marketplace and free enterprise dictate the business model...there are other ways of earning income if the rewards aren't what you want as a performer...i don't think TB has too much to complain about.

Tony is just po'ed because he never wrote any of the songs he sings. Elvis and Sinatra are probably screaming from the grave becuase they never wrote one song they sang as well.

Good luck tracking down all the people that played on a track 50 years ago.

The people whose work, no matter if one played in the orchestra, sang lead, sang back-up, conducted the orchestra, wrote the melody, wrote the lyrics, whatever the musical contribution, all should be paid royalties from the radio stations on which their work is featured. Music can become "syndicated" like television programming. Back in the day, royalties were not well discussed and written into contracts. Just ask many of the Black American artists who got cheated out of any royalties at all. Re-runs are worth something. This is not a greed issue at all. It's about being paid for work performed. I hope the legislation passes.

Tony, stop drinking Billy Corgan's Kool-Aid.

Tony is a nice man but he makes no sense with trying to have radio stations pay singers and bands for playing their records. Back in the day, record companies paid payola to have radio stations play the records to promote sales of the records. Payola is illegal and so should paying to play records by radio stations.

The recording artists need the radio stations to play their records more than radio stations need to play the records. These artists would not dare boycott the radio stations that refused to pay for their recordings. There would be no market for their recording and they would have to go back to waiting tables and bartending.

Cyberist wrote:

ASCAP etal should also hit up the bars and stores for even more money for playing radio and CDs for customers.

They already do that. It comes out of the licensing stamps on the juke boxes in the bars. Get caught playing music on your own and you will have an issue. I have received emails from bars that have gotten shut down for royalties because they have bands that play cover tunes.
There needs to be a grace period so new music doesn't get paid. Like marketing copies of CDs.

How long could radio stations survive paying? They'd have to raise the price of advertising.

But, who cares about that? Uh, Tony? Just as long as he & other singers can live their lavish lifestyle.