Paul Porter, co-founder of the non-profit media watchdog group Industry Ears, recently posted an open letter on ebonyjet.com backing the Performance Rights Act (HR 848), arguing that it would help minority radio. Porter states that the quality of black radio is in decline and the performance royalty will allow more artists to make a living by playing music, thereby improving the quality of music that is offered. Porter says that black-owned stations went into a tailspin when they started losing their independent voices and turning into "sterile corporate jukeboxes limiting both information and community access, while feeding us music that reinforced the same stereotypes that for decades radio helped to defeat."

He also calls out Radio One founder Cathy Hughes for leading the charge against HR 848, an act of legislation that Hughes says will "end black radio." Nothing could be further from the truth, argues Porter.

"Songwriters and publishers continue to be paid by AM & FM radio. So why should the performers be excluded?," he writes. "The fact is that most of music we love is not made by people who are that rare combination of singer/songwriter. When performers lose a route to compensation – especially in this age of the download – we eventually lose those performers. The equation is easy: no money=no performers, no performer=no music, no music=no Black radio in the long term."

He adds, "Naturally, radio stations – particularly Black radio stations – consider any new compensation for artists to be a financial burden, even as they continue to ask artists to perform free for radio promotions. Popular syndicated hosts Tom Joyner, Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden, Warren Ballentine, Yolanda Adams and hundreds of radio stations have all followed Hughes' lead, merely reinforcing the broadcasters’ mandate. Hundreds of public service announcements and interviews about the bill have lacked clarity and an opposing side of the debate... Black radio is syndicated 25 times more than its white counterparts, reducing the historic community connection of local personalities. When you limit the voices you can control the messenger and the message. Sadly, Black radio is black these days only in name. From Radio One to Clear Channel, the independent voices have been silenced and critical information has been replaced with jokes, condensed play lists and little to no local community or grassroots outreach of the kind that established Black radio's power."

In related news, Moby took to his own blog this week to lambaste the RIAA for suing Jammie Thomas-Rasset of Minnesota for illegal file sharing. Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of downloading and sharing 24 songs and ordered to pay $1.92 million to the recording industry.

"Punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business," Moby wrote. "Maybe the record companies have adopted the 'it's better to be feared than respected' approach to dealing with music fans. I don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of 'it's better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices?' I'm so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music. The RIAA needs to be disbanded."