Gene Simmons Says Radio Stations Treat Musicians "Worse Than Slaves"

""It looks like a small issue. There are wars going on and everything, but our emissaries to the world are Elvis and Frank Sinatra," Simmons said toward the end of his testimony (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "When they find out we're not treating our stars right, in other words, worse than slaves. Slaves get food and water. Elvis and Bing Crosby, and Sinatra got nothing for their performance.""

""Earlier in the speech, Simmons cited examples like Bing Crosby not getting paid for radio airplay of his massive holiday hit, "White Christmas." He stated, "Every Christmas, we, and around the world, are listening to 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'. That's America's song. Everyone received money - the radio station sold advertising, the plumber who fixed the plumbing got paid, the disc jockey got paid. The only person that was never paid for the airplay was Bing Crosby, which is astonishing.""

KISS co-founder Gene Simmons testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Intellectual Property Subcommittee in support of the American Music Fairness Act. The proposed legislation would require terrestrial radio stations to pay artists and songwriters a greater share of royalties for playing their music. Simmons compared the refusal of radio stations to pay performance royalties to slavery and described the lack of payments as an ongoing injustice. He cited examples such as Bing Crosby receiving no payment for radio airplay of "White Christmas" and named other artists like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and George Strait as being shortchanged.

Read at Consequence