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To: Broadcasting Authority Of Ireland, Catherine Martin, Irish Broadcasters

Open Call To The Irish Government, The BAI & Irish Radio Broadcasters to Support Domestic Artists

This is an open call to the Irish Government, the BAI & Irish Radio Broadcasters to support domestic artists by allocating more airtime to them on the radio.

Why Not Her? ask you all to consider supporting domestic Irish artists by working towards increasing the amount of airtime allocation appointed to domestic Irish Artists and Bands on-air across Irish radio, By artists and bands we mean: artists and bands of every race, colour and creed; ie: female-identifying, male-identifying, gender non-conforming artists and artists with disability along with artists from the LGBTQIA community.

In this time of economic hardship for our music creatives, we wish to express our concerns with the disparity and lack of equality across Irish radio broadcasting during Covid of domestic Irish artists who are artists of colour, female-identifying and gender non-conforming artists.

Radio airtime royalties, which are generated each time an artists song is played on the radio, is now one of the sole major methods of revenue for our domestic artists.

To quote the website of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO): “It has been well understood that consistent commercial airplay accompanies significant music sales, generates public performance royalties, and burnishes a recording artist’s profile.”

Across Irish radio, music created in Ireland gets about one play to every six plays for international artists. That’s less than 15% of all radio plays. As a result, foreign payments running to millions of euros leave the country every 3 months. This is real revenue, being paid out by Irish Radio as well as commercial users like bars, restaurants etc., through the three copyright/collection bodies, IMRO, PPI and RAAP.

To continue exporting the majority of royalties to International artists during such a harrowing time in Irish history will equate to our domestic artists suffering even more hardship.

We ask Minister Martin, those in power within the Irish government, the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) and those who work in Radio Broadcasting to consider allocating more airplay and heavy rotation to our domestic artists to safeguard their careers in such a financial crisis for them, with gigs being cancelled and their music and arts scene being one of the worst affected industries during covid.

Why is this important?

We need to safeguard the domestic Irish musicians, bands and artists within the music industry through a difficult time during Covid. This is an open call to the Irish Government, the BAI & Irish Radio Broadcasters to support domestic artists by allocating more airtime to them on the radio.

If Irish Radio continues exporting the majority of royalties to International artists during such a harrowing time in our history - it will equate to our domestic artists suffering even more hardship, some having to give up music careers altogether.

We ask Minister Martin, those in power within the Irish government, the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) and those who work in Radio Broadcasting to consider allocating more airplay and heavy rotation to our domestic artists to safeguard their careers in such a financial crisis for them, with gigs being cancelled and their music and arts scene being one of the worst affected industries during covid.

Ireland

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Updates

2021-12-13 12:13:24 +0000

100 signatures reached

2021-12-06 23:02:44 +0000

50 signatures reached

2021-12-06 15:17:24 +0000

25 signatures reached

2021-12-06 10:10:39 +0000

10 signatures reached