Performance and Payment.

By the 1940s, years of dispute had divided broadcasters and American songwriters. At the heart of their controversy was compensation for music played over the radio. Most radio broadcasts were live, and the musicians and composers were paid for a single performance, but to musicians and composers payment for a single performance alone did not seem fair when that one performance was being received by millions of listeners. Had those millions been packed into one concert hall, the musicians's share of the receipts would presumably have been huge. Broadcasters argued that it was impossible to pay licensing fees based on how many listeners tuned in, because no one knew what that number was. Besides, it was the technology of radio that made such enormous audiences possible. From the broadcasters' standpoint, it was enough to pay the musician and the songwriter...