AMERICAN MUSICIANS ARE OFF THE RECORD

Chronicle (Levin), 21 October 1947, Page 7

AMERICAN MUSICIANS ARE OFF THE RECORD

Eecei\'ed Mondav, 7 p.m CHICAttO, Oct. 19. The president' of the American Fedcr ation of AFusiciaus, Mr Jame^ Petrillo, anuounced today that uonc of the union 's 225,000 members would be permitted to mahe recordings oj transcriptions after December 31. Musieians, he said, were determined ue\'er again to mahe the instrumenl Lhat would eveutually destroy them. Unless radio programmes in the future had live niusic to ofl'er there Avould not l)e any niusic. The union 's decision was the result of the passage of tht Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibits payinent of royalties directly to unious. Mr Petrillo said the lian avouUI not mean that niusic lovers would be unable to buy records. They would not. liowever, be able to get recordings oi new songs or uew arrangements of old compositions. Cla-jsical records and old jazss "classics" undoubtedly' would be reissued, but devotees of populai niusic would have to listen to live musieians if they .wanted to hear new pieces. The Musieians' Federatiou has been receiving royalty • pavments, but under the terms of the Taft-Hartley Act the arrangeraent cannot be renewed when the union 's present eontract Avith the companies" expires on December 31. A spokesman for the record industry said the ban had been expected, and the major companies had built up large reserves of unissued musical recordings. Oue spokesman estimated that a tAvoyear supply of unissued records was on hand. > It is estimated that the musieians will lose earnings aniounting to about 10,000,000 dollars anuually as a result of the ban. Music industrv oiiicials and leading artists hope ' the fcderation president, Mr Petrillo, Avill conie to terms Avith the recording companies before the deadliue. If not, the band will preveut "natue stars" like Bing Crosby and Abbot aud Costello from transcribing radio shoAvs aud greatly reduce tlie royalty earnings of big. dance bands. It may also ruiu many small record shops which dejjend on the turnover of popular tnnes in Rollywood, Leading musieians solidly supported Mr Petrillo today. Band leader Gruy Lombardo said he hoped Mr Petrillo 's action would bring the "misuse of recordings" to the attention jof the public.