Pump v. Well

Millions and millions of loudspeakers flood the U. S. with a mighty, surging bath of warm, sweet music. At the pump is Radio; the wellspring is Tin Pan Alley. Without the well, the pump is not much good. Both realize it but they do not love each other. Last week pump and well-- the National Association of Broadcasters and the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers--came to grips.

Tin Pan Alley is sadly aware that Radio has virtually plugged up its oldtime outlets, sheet music and gramophone discs. The average music publisher used to get $175,000 a year from disc sales. He now gets about 10% of this. No longer does a song hit sell a million copies. The copious stream of music poured out by Radio puts a song quickly to death. The average song's life has dwindled from 18 months to 90 days; composers are forced to turn out a dozen songs a year instead of the oldtime two or three.

The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers is Tin Pan Alley's clearing house. Its 800 composer & publisher-members own the copyrights to nearly all the music composed in the U. S. since 1914. It is affiliated with similar societies abroad. To many radio listeners and broadcasters the phrase "by special permission of the copyright owners" has been irksome. A. S. C. A. & P. used to insist upon it, permitting no facetious trifling with the announcement. Lately, however, it lifted this requirement. Most of its songs may be performed without special permission, but a number are restricted, for example musical comedy songs which the producers do not wish to be too soon familiarized. On the current special list are also Deems Taylor's Through the Looking Glass, his operas Peter Ibbetson and The King's Henchman; George Gershwin's An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue, Second Rhapsody; Ferde Grofe's Five Pictures of the Grand Canyon and Metropolis; seven songs sung by Sir Harry Lauder. who will sing no song previously broadcast.

A. S. C. A. & P. has in the past levied a flat assessment upon the Radio chains, permitting them to use any song by its members. In 1931 it received $960,000 from broadcasting, which it prorated among its composers, authors and publishers of the world. In the U. S. the average composer got $630 during the year; a hit-composer between $2,000 and $2,500. Tin Pan Alley feels this is not enough. Total time sold on the air last year brought Radio some 75 millions. From January to June this year, National Broadcasting Co. Inc. grossed $15,000,000, an increase of $3,000,000 over the first six months of 1931. Tin Pan Alley covets a juicier cut than its scant million. Last April A. S. C. A. & P. proposed a new deal. In the new contract which begins Sept. i, let the broadcasters pay in addition to the flat assessment for non-commercial programs a 5% cut of the gross receipts from commercial programs. This would bring the society from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 a year. The broadcasters flatly refused to consider any such increase, pointing out that many of their commercial sponsors have gone off the air.

President of A. S. C. A. & P. is Gene Buck, stalwart, grey-haired composer-lyricist-producer, onetime associate of the late Florenz Ziegfeld. Last week Variety reported that a committee headed by President Buck had accepted Radio's compromise offer to raise the ante to $1,250,000 a year -- which Variety said is regarded as Tin Pan Alley's "nuisance value." President Buck promptly denied that any agreement had been reached. Last week it was reported that A. S. C. A. & P., rather than yield, would withdraw from the air all the music it controls. This it denies, leaving the next move to Radio. Should no agreement be reached, Radio might be in the strange position of being obliged to give Mozart to its crooners. Bach and Beethoven to its toothpaste and ginger ale orchestras. It could not broad cast the music of Puccini or Igor Stravinsky any more than it could Gershwin and Berlin. Radio would doubtless have trouble fighting the composers in court; the cinema exhibitors once tried to dodge the theatre music license fee (10-c- per seat per year), were beaten again & again by the composers, on up to the U. S. Supreme Court. But few observers last week rated Tin Pan Alley capable of a united front against Radio which is now its very life blood.

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