See
Bill Holland & Rent's Due on YouTube
Catch Bill on http://www.xmradio.com
channel 74 (Bluesville)"Bluesville with Bill Wax" April 29 at
3pm edst
Click
here to enter Bill's website
Bill began working in autumn 2006 as a consultant for the artist-friendly
group, SoundExchange. The group
collects new performance royalties for recording artists and record labels
from cable, satellite and Internet “webcasting” services. These
are new royalties created in 1995 by federal law. They are separate from
traditional songwriter royalties.
For the first time, recording artists receive royalty money for airplay,
and they are paid directly, instead of through their record companies, which
historically applied such revenue against their recording, publicity and
marketing accounts.
Regular radio, long fierce opponents of a performance royalty for artists,
is still exempted, but if a radio station digitally simulcasts its programs,
by law it must pay in to the royalty pool.
Calling on his experience in investigative journalism and extensive knowledge
of this country’s music makers, SoundExchange asked Bill to come on
board as an outreach specialist, tracking down and contacting artists who
have not come forward to collect their royalties. These royalties are sometimes
sizable. But even if they are small, forecasters say they will become a
significant revenue stream now that webcasting and satellite radio services
are becoming part of the mainstream.
Many of these artists are on indie labels; many others are heritage performers
whose airplay “lifespan” has suddenly been extended by performances
on these new services. Many had no knowledge of SoundExchange nor that these
royalty monies even existed.
“It’s a great job,” Bill says. “To be able to track
down these folks and tell them that there’s money waiting for them
to compensate them for their creative efforts.”
He adds: “It’s certainly a brand new day for recording artists.
We’re now in a new media era in which listeners can finally tune into
programs while in their car or at their PCs that go deep into genres like
jazz, folk and world music that regular radio has long abandoned. And artists,
finally, are benefitting.
Here's a press report of Bill in action
for SoundExchange
Bill Holland was the award-winning Washington Bureau Chief for
Billboard. He joined the Billboard staff in October, 1981.
In November 2005, Billboard terminated its Washington Bureau, and with it,
Bill.
For 24 years, he has covered the legislative and regulatory beat in D.C.,
and has also reported all the major court cases issues that affect the music
industry.
Holland’s coverage also chronicled the emerging role of the government
in safeguarding creators and content owners as the digital era and the popularity
of the internet changed the foundation of the music business.
Holland reported on all of the major digital era changes in U.S. copyright
law, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Digital Performance
Right in Sound Recordings Act, the Audio Home Recording Act as well as anti-piracy,
indecency and intellectual property protection legislation.
He has also covered such Supreme Court copyright law rulings as the landmark
Betamax case, the Copyright Term Extension Act case and the recent Grokster
decision.
His beat also extended to the federal agencies, and reported on public policy
rulings at the the Copyright Office, the Department of Justice, the Federal
Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Commerce Department
and others.
In addition to his government beat reporting, Holland also has contributed
many investigative and analytical feature articles to the magazine.
For example, he was the first writer in the industry to report on the sorry
state of recorded music preservation and efforts by U.S. record companies
to turn the tide to preserve America’s audio heritage.
He also was the first reporter in the industry to investigate the inequities
of recording artists’ contracts with their labels, long a subject
of criticism.
In 2000, Holland was presented the first in-house award named for legendary
Billboard editor Paul Ackerman for his “self-generated enterprise
journalism.”
He has also won many Billboard “Front Page” Billboard awards
for his stories over the years.
Holland has also won many outside prizes for his work, most notably two
ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, given for “significant contributions to
music journalism.” That award is considered the most prestigious in
the industry.
The first, presented in 1998, was in appreciation for his three-part investigative
articles chronicling the record industry’s efforts to stop the deterioration
and loss of untold numbers of recordings that had received inadequate archival
and preservation efforts in the past.
The second, which he won in 2000, was for his year-long series on a copyright
law amendment that made sound recordings a new category of “work for
hire.” That characterization took away the right of most recording
artists to reclaim their recordings after a period of exploitation by record
companies.
In addition to breaking that story, Holland’s efforts focused music
community and lawmakers’ attention on the law, which was subsequently
repealed by Congress.
For that series, Holland was also awarded a Special Achievement Award from
the Washington Area Music Assn. (WAMA).
Over the years, Holland has also represented Billboard as an expert on government
and legislative affairs at many industry conventions, forums and seminars,
both as a moderator and panelist .
Holland is also a veteran musician. From the mid-70s, the singer-songwriter-pianist has led one of the D.C. area’s most familiar groups, the Rent’s Due Band, and has seven albums to his credit. He has won several WAMA awards for his music and recordings.
He was also instrumental in convincing the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) to open a D.C. area branch.
Holland began his music career as pianist in the original lineup of the veteran blues group, The Nighthawks. Before that, he was an award-winning magazine writer and general assignment reporter for the D.C. daily, The Washington Star.
He graduated from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., then served in Liberia for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Holland is married to visual artist Marianne LaRoche.
"By Heart," Dutch Treat 1006. Studio recording. CD. Original jazz and jazz-pop.