It is a ridiculous notion that everyone who can sing can write.

Of course it is. Anybody could have handed Dixon three examples of singers he admires (or at least doesn’t want to cast shade on) and gotten him to back-pedal in a vast flurry of words and strategic explanations. 

At the same time, he’s mostly parroting what a vocal portion of his fan base and any number of “rock” musicians say openly — that they prefer singers who write their own music, play their own instruments, omg!authenticity. I don’t agree as a blanket statement, because I enjoy any number of pop singers who don’t write their own music (and because I think “songwriter” is itself a valid occupation). But singer/songwriters say sh*t like this, so while I could wish for slightly more tact and shading, I’m not surprised that the sentiment has an audience.

Actually, I’m mostly surprised that Dixon didn’t go for tact and shading; he usually seems to want it both ways on opinions that might be controversial. I’m not going to change my music-listening habits to agree with him, but this hasn’t crossed my puppy-eating line on giving music half a listen.

“For instance, because he didn’t write “Home”, Phillip does not get paid even one fraction of a penny for all those commercial radio spins that Home has received — only the songwriters get paid for commercial radio play. If an artist didn’t write the song, he or she gets zip.”

Comment is not specific to any particular (Singer Name) but this all seems so The Dark Ages.  It was found actors yrs. ago were not being paid for their reruns & it became a disgrace.  Actors didn’t write or co-write their shows & yet b/c they starred in them in reruns people felt they should be paid for it (my full agreement w/that).  Don’t understand at all how that differs from a song being played over & over again on radio–why shouldn’t singers be given even a semi-decent cut every time, even if they didn’t write or co-write it?  A song is just notes & words on a paper until a good singer performs it–just as crucial as the writer in my book.  Unreal!

Don’t understand at all how that differs from a song being played over & over again on radio–why shouldn’t singers be given even a semi-decent cut every time, even if they didn’t write or co-write it?

The historic reasoning for commercial radio royalties in the U.S. was that radio play is promotion for the sound recording, so the owner of the sound recording itself (record label, which then pays royalties to the singer) doesn’t get royalties because that party is benefitting in the form of record sales. That reasoning doesn’t totally hold water because songwriters also get royalties on record sales, but as owner of the work itself, they negotiated a different deal. 

Internet radio does have to pay a royalty to the owner of the work (label, which then pays to the singer). Owners of the big internet radio stations therefore b*tch, whine, and moan about how unfaaaaiiiirrrrr this is, because it cuts into their ability to make a profit. (Pandora’s all over this. They can’t get subscriber fees and ads to cover royalty payments.)

Personally, I’d favor paying singers a royalty on radio play, mostly on the principle that I loathe to “you should do it for free as it’s good promo,” especially in the current market of pricing music to zero. Getting commercial terrestrial radio to find the money in its faltering business model is probably a losing battle, though. *gets depressed about money flow in music industry*

Well now, that’s interesting. I had no idea that anyone
(writer or performer) got paid when a song was played on the radio. I figured
both got paid out of the sales, through whatever contracts they had with the
record label responsible for producing the song.

I did have a vague idea that if a song is licensed for  promotional use (in a commercial or something)
then yes, the songwriter got royalties from that…but I didn’t realize that they
get royalties whenever a song is played on the radio.

I’ve also always had the cynical philosophy that the industry
sees radio as a means to  drive sales of
a song or album, which makes the fact that the song writers actually get a cut,
never mind that the singers don’t, even more surprising. The song writers
association (or whatever) obviously had a much better lawyer than the singers union
(or whatever the equivalent is).

 This is amazing. Joseph’s video made me cry, what a sweet boy. I am so happy he got to meet his idol, Adam. Also, happy to see yet again how Adam is such an inspiration to young people like Joseph.