RIAA Lobbies for FM Radio on All Phones, iPods

Two music industry pillars, the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Association of Broadcasters, have teamed up in hopes of convincing Congress to mandate that all portable electronic devices, from iPods to cell phones to PDAs, have FM radio receivers built into them, Ars Technica reports.

The proposal - which the Consumer Electronics Association, the group representing the companies that would eventually be forced to add FM to their devices, strongly opposes - could come before lawmakers before the end of the year. "The backroom scheme to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices, including mobile phones, is the height of absurdity," said CEA president Gary Shapiro. But the rule could be a boon for radio companies and record labels: It would give radio stations, which have lost significant numbers of listeners, a much larger marketplace, which would in turn boost awareness of the record industry's artists. The RIAA and NAB have been arguing over performance-rights fees for years - radio pays royalties only to songwriters, not the artists or labels, an arrangement that obviously favors the NAB over the RIAA - but here they've clearly found common ground.

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Song Stories

“The Pretender”

Foo Fighters | 2007

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."

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