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The American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Recording Musicians' Association strongly support legislation providing a digital performance right in sound recordings. In the past, technological change has often resulted in the displacement of musicians and vocalists. Technological change once again poses a threat to performers who derive income from sound recordings. Digital delivery services now exist which offer CD-quality music to subscribers in their homes. These digital audio subscription services have the potential to undermine or replace record and CD sales since the subscriber will be able to enjoy CD-quality music without having had to buy CDs in the first instance. Inevitably musicians and vocalists who derive a small portion of their income from the sale of recordings will suffer.
Not only will failure to enact digital performance rights legislation adversely affect income to U.S. performers in this country, but a lack of performance rights in sound recordings also prevents U.S. record companies and performers from obtaining royalty income from foreign countries. At least 60 other countries provide some form of performance and/or performer's rights in sound recordings, but refuse to pay royalties on the performance of U.S. sound recordings because their sound recording products do not receive reciprocal treatment in this country.
We strongly urge Congress to enact digital performance rights legislation to ensure the vitality of the recording industry for both performers and record companies in this country and to facilitate the repatriation of performance royalties from foreign countries.
Good morning, Chairman Moorhead and members of the Subcommittee. I would like to first express my appreciation to the Subcommittee for accommodating my schedule by allowing me to testify this morning instead of last week on June 21. On that day I was gathered together with hundreds of other professional musicians in Las Vegas for the gist Convention of the international musicians' union, the American Federation of Musicians ("AFM"). Today, I am very honored to be here and speak on behalf of AFM and our sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists ("AFTRA"). I want to explain why digital performance rights legislation is of vital importance to ordinary working musicians like myself and why we deeply appreciate the efforts of this Subcommittee under your farsighted chairmanship.
My name is Dennis Dreith. I am a professional musician. I live in Studio City, California and support myself as an instrumentalist, orchestrator, arranger and composer in the Los Angeles area. I am also the International President of the Recording Musicians Association of the United States and Canada ("RMA"), which is a Conference of studio musicians within the AFM. The AFM represents over 130,000 professional musicians working throughout the United States and Canada. The RMA focuses on concerns of recording musicians and has chapters in the major recording centers in North America, including Los Angeles - where it has over 1,000 members - New York, Nashville, and Toronto. We also have chapters in such newly developing recording centers as Orlando, Spokane, and Northern California.
I am not famous, but I have had the good fortune in my career to work with many performing artists who are famous. I began my professional career playing saxophone, clarinet, and flute, both in concerts and on recordings. In time, I played with such artists as the Beach Boys, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Phil Spector, the Checkmates and the Osmond Brothers. Eventually I also began to work as an arranger and orchestrator. In that role I have written music for a wide variety of artists, including Little Richard, the O Jays, Stephen Bishop and Barbra Striesand. And I have orchestrated music for numerous motion pictures, including Misery, The Addams Family, Aliens 3, Hearts and Souls, The Color of Night, Home Alone II and Jurassic Park.
Even though I have made a considerable creative contribution to these artists and productions, I remain anonymous except to a small segment of industry insiders.
In this regard I am like thousands of ordinary musicians. We are the violin players who sit in the section on a Barbra Striesand session, the bass player who comes up with the original bass line on a Beach Boys record, the saxophone player who played the innovative solo on your favorite Steely Dan song, or the guitar who made the rhythm come alive on scores of Motown hits. In other words, we are the individuals who breath life into the music. Take for example a friend of mine - Jay Berliner - a studio musician in New York, who created the guitar intro for "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." That intro became synonymous with the song, and no doubt was a major contributing factor in making that record the hit that it was . The recording of "Raindrops" has been played on the radio literally millions of times and continues to be played today throughout the world. I am quite sure that there is no one in this room who has not heard and enjoyed Jay Berliner's creative contribution on the recording, as well as those of his fellow musicians, without ever knowing their names. Yet, because of serious omissions in the current copyright laws denying a performance right to the performers on a sound recording, Jay Berliner and the others receive no continuing compensation for their creative contribution when these works are performed over and over again.
One of the best examples I can think of to demonstrate the creative contribution of anonymous instrumental and vocal performers - and thus the justification for them to enjoy a performance right in sound recordings - is in the case of jazz. Jazz is universally recognized as a truly unique American art form - one that has had a profound impact on popular music the world over. By its very nature, jazz is an improvisational art form, which means that the musicians are spontaneously creating the music as it is being performed. While the original composition is certainly important in a jazz recording, it only serves as a jumping off point for the musicians. The original composition provides the foundation upon which the improvised solos of musicians and vocalists are based and a place to return to complete a performance. But it is the solos created by the musicians themselves that are the true essence of jazz. In fact it is the solos created by great jazz artists that make these recordings memorable. More often than not, the improvised elements of these recordings are as recognized as the original compositions themselves. Yet, because of an anachronism in current copyright law, the composers are paid royalties for the performances of their compositions and the jazz performers receive nothing.
A musician is often called to a recording session with little advanced notice, and, with the exception of large orchestra sessions, often with no music having been prepared in advance. After a brief "run thur," s/he is asked to "...come up with something that will add that extra magic to make this record a hit." We do this because it is our job and we love music. While it may be true that very few vocations provide the kind of our families and for their futures.
The public tends to think only rich celebrities and major star performers when they think of musicians and vocalists in the record business, but ordinary working musicians like me know better. We know that the quintessentially American art forms of pop, jazz and rock music - and the successful American business, the recording industry -- are built in major part upon the creative work of musicians and vocalists whose economic status ranges form struggling to just comfortable. Stars, of course, make fortunes, and a select few musicians working in the studios are able to command payments in excess of the collectively bargained basic scale for their services. But, the vast majority of musicians and vocalists work for the minimum wage provided for under collective bargaining agreements, often with no guarantee of additional employment beyond a basic three hour session.
There are some additional sources of compensation to performers. Occasionally, when recorded product is transferred to another medium, musicians receive a "new-use" payment generally based on a percentage of their original scale wages. In addition, since the early 1960's, the Phonograph Record Labor Agreement has required signatory employers to make contributions to the Phonograph Record Manufacturers' Special Payments Fund (an independently administered fund), based on the sale of records in the calendar year. The Fund Administrator then distributes to musicians pro-rata shares which diminish over five years, based on the individual musician's phonograph earnings. The Special Payments Fund is a vehicle to provide recording musicians with some share of the benefits of record company sales success. Active recording musicians increasingly depend on their SPF income. But scale wages and SPF together only just amount to a living, and only for those artists that are lucky as well as talented.
The things I am telling you have been true for decades. Musicians and vocalists have always been creators within the meaning of the copyright law, but they have largely been neglected by that law which unfairly deprives them of a performance right in sound recordings. It has been true for decades that Congress has declined to enact a performer's right in sound recordings primarily due to the intense opposition from the broadcast industry. This situation has and continues to have devastating global consequences for musicians and vocalists, making it virtually impossible for them to receive the performance royalties collected for their very performances by other countries. At least sixty other countries provide some form of performance and/or performers' rights in sound recordings, but refuse to pay royalties on performances of U.S. sound recordings because their sound recording products would not receive reciprocal treatment here. In this balance of trade issue we are the big losers since it is our recordings that comprise the overwhelming majority of product produced and performed worldwide.
But now is a time of great change, and performers applaud Representative Moor head for introducing legislation which responds to those changes by creating at least a limited, digital, performance right in sound recordings. We particularly appreciate the inclusion of provisions under which performers will receive royalties whether by statutory shares or by private contracts with the record companies.
We are at the dawn of a new technological era -- one that has the potential to greatly enhance the lives of both the consumer and the artist, but one that also brings with it potential problems. With the advent of the various digital delivery systems, for a subscription fee the consumer will have commercial-free, deejay-free CD quality music transmitted directly to their homes. In essence, what we anticipate will be " virtual record stores and virtual radio stations" in your home at the push of a button. While performers are excited by the prospects of new employment opportunities in sensational new mediums, we are concerned that all who are intimately involved in providing the product that will be performed on these new mediums (e.g. composers, publishers, musicians, vocalists and the record companies) all receive fair compensation for the performance of their work.
The purchase of recorded product as we know it could soon be a thing of the past. Obviously, reductions in record and CD sales will seriously erode yet one more avenue recording musicians have of benefitting from their labors. Without this valuable digital performance rights legislation, these new digital audio subscription services will be able to exploit commercially the creative efforts of performers on sound recordings without any compensation to them or the record companies. The passage of this important legislation will demonstrate that the United States of America cares as much for its creative artists as does the rest of the world. Thank you very much for your time and attention.