At the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, a late cancellation by Sean Hannity resulted in a keynote panel discussion on performance rights for sound recordings on terrestrial. I couldn't score a press pass, but David M. Ross from Music Row was there and has a post on the panel. Panelists were Mike Kraski of Tenacity Management, John Simpson of SoundExchange, Tom Taylor from Radio-info.com and National Association of Broadcasters EVP John David.

For an idea of the parties' opinions, let's look at a few quotes.

• "Zero is the only acceptable number to pay" -- NAB's John David
• "On our side it is a moral imperative. If one side wins big while the other loses then we all fail. We need radio, and radio needs content. There has to be a middle ground." -- Tenacity's Mike Kraski
• "Artists who had great records of songs they didn’t write get nothing when their music is played over and over for years" -- SoundExchange's John Simpson

Ross wrote that the panel was contentious and the audience Q&A "brought the emotional impact of this economic issue to a boil." Wow, sorry I missed it. Sounds a bit like the FCC town hall hearing I attended in December 2006. The best way to get country musicians and labels riled up is to talk about country radio. The genre has an incredibly strong link to terrestrial radio, so any discussions, whether they're about ownership or performance royalties for sound recordings, are going to be emotional.