Bill C-11 Committee on March 1st, 2012

[Michael McCarty]

It's not a tax; it's a royalty.

[A voice]

It's just for music.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

It's just for music. But still, everybody should pay a little extra for this or whatever device they listen to.

[Michael McCarty]

Well, when you buy those devices, you pay a lot of money for the patents and copyrights embedded in them.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

So you're calling a tax, then, a royalty, basically?

[Michael McCarty]

It's a royalty.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

So you want to change the wording from a tax to a royalty.

[Michael McCarty]

It's not a tax. I want a commercially negotiated royalty.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

So people would be paying a royalty tax on their iPods or their--

[Michael McCarty]

If you want to continue calling it a tax, go ahead. I'm fascinated by this.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

What's the difference? Am I paying more—yes or no? As a consumer, am I paying more for this—yes or no—after what you've decided?

[Michael McCarty]

The manufacturer would have the decision to pass on the cost or absorb it.

[The Chair, NDP, Glenn Thibeault]

Thank you, Mr. McCarty and Mr. Calandra. Your time has expired.

I'm now moving on, for the five next minutes, to Mr. Benskin.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thanks very much.

Thank you all for your presence here.

Contrary to our resident “sky is falling” pundit, we do congratulate you for being successful.

We look at the content—and I come from the content world, as an actor—as being a symbiotic relationship with the diffusers or the producers. Within that symbiotic relationship I think there needs to be a sense of sharing of that success rather than a flat “Here's your $50, and go away”.

With that in mind, and my colleague across the way brought that up, it is a need-plus-need basis. You are not going to be successful unless you play music that people want to hear. Correct?

[Richard Gray]

Well, as I said earlier, that's true, but there's much more to the equation than that.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

That I understand.

[Tanya Woods]

Sorry to cut you off, honourable member. As a point to add, we are still successful with talk radio programming.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Great. But if you've dedicated a station to being a music-driven station as opposed to a talk radio station, you need that music in order to bring listeners to your station. You need the music, you need the on-air host who adds to that. You need all those different levels. But a key component of that is playing the right music. Right?

[Richard Gray]

That is correct. And we do pay for it, as I've said before.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I understand that, but there seems to be a sense that it needs to be a flat rate: we pay some $2 million, therefore that should be enough. What I'm saying to you is the success of your radio station is directly tied to the success of the choices that you make, whether it be the top 40 or golden oldies, and so forth. Rather than a flat fee that you pay, what I'm putting to you is a sense of sharing of that success due to their participation.

[Richard Gray]

If the success of a radio station was just about the music....

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

It's a component, sir.

[Richard Gray]

I know; I said that earlier.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

If you have the greatest on-air hosts and so forth, but you have crappy music, it's not going to be successful. Is that fair enough?

[Richard Gray]

But just because I'm playing great music doesn't necessarily make my radio station a success, because I'm playing the same music as the guy down the street is playing, as the guy down the street farther is playing. Right? There is a great deal more to making a radio station a success than just playing records.