This email was forwarded from our friend Todd Baptista, via our friend Clyde Frazier. Please read it and pass this blog link and information along.

1. Obviously it is very important for OUR artists to be compensated for their work and as you read thru the website list you will see the names of some of your favorite artists who have money waiting for them, all they need do is collect it. This money represents PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES that they are due as a result of Internet Radio airplay.

Please forward this blog address to as many people as possible and if you know any artist (not just the ones listed on the website), please encourage them to go to the SoundExchange website (http://www.soundexchange.com) to check and see if they are entititled to collect any past due airplay royalties.

2. It is these very same PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES that the US Congress via HR Bill 848, wants to insure are paid by terrestrial radio broadcasters like Cathy Hughes.

CATHY HUGHES WANTS YOU TO LOBBY YOUR CONGRESSPERSON TO OPPOSE THIS PROPOSED LAW. SHE DOESN’T THINK THAT ARTISTS DESERVE TO BE COMPENSATED FOR THEIR WORK AS A RESULT OF HER PLAYING THEIR MUSIC AND MAKING MONEY FROM IT.

Soul-Patrol feels that Cathy Hughes in taking this position is helping to enable CULTURE BANDITRY. Why shouldn’t she pay for using the artist content? How would she feel if someone used her work to get rich, and then got on the public airways and told the general public that it was a good thing?

(and this is one of the things that I recently discussed on www.AirAmerica.com w/Chuck D on his show “On The Real”)

Here’s the Email that I received:

Friends-

It’s about time for next round of Sound Exchange royalty statements to be sent out and while browsing at their site today, I am amazed at the number of artists who are not collecting their royalties.

Remember- any unclaimed royalties revert back to the U. S. Government at the end of each calendar year.

I am not sure when the following list was most recently updated as several of the artists we recently signed up (including the Solitaires and Tune Weavers, for example) are listed as unclaimed. However, the following artists are still not collecting royalties. If you are on this list or know someone on this list or a family member or estate, please contact Sound Exchange or visit them online at http://www.soundexchange.com.

As always, I am willing to volunteer my services to assist in getting the paperwork done for original artists or their families (trbent[at]charter.net). Currently, we
have assisted over 60 performing artists to collect these royalties.

Thanks,

Todd Baptista

For the updated list, and more info about Sound Exchange, read on:

Artists not collecting royalties are listed on 84 pages at their website.

In summary, SoundExchange handles the following:

. collects performance royalties from the statutory licensees;
. collects performance royalties from reciprocal agreements with foreign collecting societies for featured artists and labels;
. collects and processes all data associated with the performance of the sound recordings;
. allocates royalties for the performance of the sound recording based on all of the data collected and processed;
. makes distribution of the featured artist’s share directly to the artist;
. makes distribution of the SRCO’s share directly to the copyright owner;
. makes distribution of the non-featured artist’s share to AFTRA and AFM’s Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund; and
. provides detailed reports summarizing the titles, featured artists and royalty amounts for each of the sound recordings performed by the statutory licensees.