Here's what went on at the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

Nancy Sinatra spoke on behalf of musicFIRST. "In no other business is the promise of promotion justification for the taking of someone's product."

ICBS Broadcast Holdings President/COO Charles Warfield spoke against the bill. He pulled out the RIAA card and asked if it is fair record labels should take half of royalties that are meant for artists. He later added, "The current symbiotic relationship that has existed for years between the radio and recording industries is the very essence of fairness." Meaning, we give them promotion and they give us free access to their music. On the impact to local radio, Warfield told the hearing, "I think there would certainly be a diminution of services provided to the community."

On Tuesday, the Department of Commerce issued a letter of support for the Performance Rights Act. "Granting copyright owners of sound recordings a full performance right coupled with extending an existing statutory license is an appropriate and workable approach to providing compensation to recording artists and record labels for the transmission of their works by over-the-air broadcast stations."

BusinessWeek.com has a very good overview of the political fight that mentions the study the NAB is passing around Washington: "The National Association of Broadcasters cites research from economist James Dertouzos, formerly affiliated with Stanford University, who says free radio airplay contributes $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion in annual music sales." Dertouzos is currently an economist for the RAND Institute for Civil Justice.

A bit of digging and I found the NAB press release and a link to the study by Dertouzos. Here's the main blurb (from page 13):

Results across the five models clearly demonstrated that performing artists and the record labels that represent them indirectly profit from radio airplay through the distribution and sale of sound recordings. Findings demonstrate that a significant portion of industry sales of albums and digital tracks can be attributed to radio airplay – at minimum 14 percent and as high as 23 percent. These results show that radio is providing the record industry with significant, incremental sales revenues or promotional sales benefit that ranges from $1.5 to $2.4 billion annually. Further, the impact estimated from exposure to music on local radio is positive and significant for all audiences and all markets.

And later he gets into the degree to which exposure to songs influence music sales:

For albums, a one-standard deviation increase in exposures (equivalent to about 10 additional tracks of music per day) results in a two percent increase in album sales. For digital tracks, the equivalent number is 2.4 percent. Country music sales appear to be the most responsive, at 3.2 percent, while the increase in R&B and Rap album sales is lowest at one percent.

The Liebowitz study I mentioned the other day gets dressed down by Dertouzos for the way in which gaps in data were filled in, among other things.