Boss Radio

When an American artist is played on UK radio they receive a payment for it; when a UK artist gets played on US radio they get nothing. The USA, along with China, Iran, North Korea and Rwanda, are the only nations in the world in which artists don't get paid for the use of their sounds on radio.

US radio says that when they play a record it's publicity and artists should be glad they're getting it for free, but it seems to me that this argument certainly can't apply to 'Solid gold radio' for a start, and I doubt if The Beatles, Queen, or Elvis Presley (3 of the all-time most featured artists on the wireless), ever benefitted that much from radio, quite the opposite in fact, and nowadays the internet has proven that artists don't need radio to survive. Internet radio, by the way, does pay the performer, as does (Or at least, so I believe) satellite radio.

Naturally the British artist's representational bodies are very much in favour of US radio coming into line with Britain and they have started a petition.

I've just emailed them my support.

Now if only I could get US radio to play my records.

I guess making one would be a start...