Randy Travis Honored With SoundExchange Music Fairness Award

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Pictured (L-R): Warner Music Nashville’s Cris Lacy, 117 Entertainment’s Zach Farnum, SoundExchange’s Marc Rucker and Michael Huppe, Randy and Mary Travi and Ontourage Management’s Tony Conway. Photo: Courtesy of Warner Music Nashville

Randy Travis has been chosen to receive SoundExchange’s Music Fairness Award for his advocacy for Congress to modernize the nation’s copyright law to protect creators and support of the American Music Fairness Act.

Though he was hospitalized with viral cardiomyopathy in 2013 and now suffers from aphasia, making it difficult to speak and sing, earlier this year Travis and his wife Mary joined SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe to testify before Congress in support of modernizing copyright law to protect creators.

“Randy Travis is a music icon and a courageous leader, willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that everyone—from music fans to lawmakers—is aware of the inequities suffered by creators for more than a century,” says Huppe. “Randy and Mary’s powerful testimony is a step forward in paving a better future for the next generation of artists. We are honored to present Randy Travis with the SoundExchange Music Fairness Award.”

“Thank you to SoundExchange for recognizing Randy for his advocacy. He loves country radio and everyone in it, he also loves his fellow creators. What he is advocating for here is an equitable solution to better align artists, labels and radio going forward under the changing environment of the music industry,” Mary says on behalf of Randy. “An old Greek proverb says ‘a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit’—it’s up to artists like Randy to help make a better world for those to come… he embraces that responsibility whole-heartedly.”

AMFA would require terrestrial broadcasters in the U.S.—the only democratic nation in the world without a performance right for artists on AM/FM radio—to pay artists royalties when their songs are played on the air.

Travis has been a SoundExchange member since 2003 and entrusts SoundExchange to collect worldwide neighboring rights royalties on his behalf through more than 65 agreements with counterpart organizations, covering nearly 90% of the global neighboring rights market.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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