Jack Ely, co-founder of The Kingsmen and best known for his 1963 rendition of “Louie, Louie,” plays his Fender bass guitar at his small horse ranch in Terre Bonne, Ore. Sometimes it bothers Ely, 65, when he hears his voice singing “Louie Louie” on loudspeakers at sports arenas or on the radio, knowing he’s not getting paid.

Jack Ely, the singer whose 1963 version of “Louie Louie” still makes the rounds on oldies radio, lives with his wife in a mobile home on a horse ranch in Oregon. Ely says they share $30,000 a year from her teacher’s pension and his Social Security checks. They are paying down a mortgage.

So sometimes it bothers Ely, 65, when he hears his voice singing “Louie Louie” on the radio or in sports arenas, knowing he’s not getting paid.

“It gets played twice a day by every oldies radio station everywhere in the world. And I get nothing,” said Ely, who recorded the song with The Kingsmen before getting drafted by the Army and leaving the band. “I got one check for $5,000. That’s all I ever saw from the sale of ‘Louie Louie.'”

Since the advent of radio in the 1920s, songwriters have made a little money every time their tunes are played on stations in most industrialized countries. The six children of “Louie Louie” songwriter Richard Berry today share more than $100,000 in royalties every year.

But performers like Ely don’t get a dime.

A bill moving through Congress aims to change that. It would let performers and the recording labels get a share of the ad revenue that radio stations collect from playing their songs. This pool of royalties could be hundreds of millions a year — which would be crucial for the record industry, as compact disc sales plummet and digital song sales aren’t making up the difference.

Helping performers

It could also unlock an estimated $70 million to $100 million per year that is collected by radio stations abroad for U.S. artists, but never paid out because U.S. stations don’t pay foreign artists in return. France, for example, takes the U.S. artists’ portion and puts it into French cultural funds.

There have been more than half a dozen attempts since the 1970s to enact a performers’ royalty on Capitol Hill. All have faltered to a powerful radio station lobby headed by the National Association of Broadcasters. The association says performers and record labels are already compensated — they sell songs and concert tickets because of the radio airplay they get. The NAB says the long history of record labels paying disc jockeys for extra rotations helps prove the point.

This time, however, the music industry thinks it can win. In the last two decades, recording companies have secured royalties from other formats: Internet radio, satellite radio and music channels on cable TV services. Mitch Bainwol, the chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America, says he’s prepared for a “multiyear” fight.

The bill has the support of the Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and is set for final revisions this month before possibly being sent to the House floor for debate.

Recession hurts stations

Radio stations say the renewed push couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The recession has pushed ad revenue at radio stations down by double-digit percentages from a year ago, and thousands of jobs have been lost.

It’s unclear how much radio airplay entices listeners to buy music. But if the “payola” scandals from the 1950s to this decade are any indication, major recording labels have long valued radio airplay, and sometimes paid cash for it.

Yet economists disagree on the promotional benefit of music on the radio.

The NAB commissioned a study by Rand Corp. economist James Dertouzos, who concluded last June that radio airplay helps boost music sales by $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion annually. NAB-made radio ad spots running now accuse the “fat cat” recording industry of “biting the hand that feeds him.”

In its defense, the recording industry found its own expert, University of Texas economist Stan Liebowitz, who told the House Judiciary Committee in March that airplay may boost individual song sales, but doesn’t increase music sales overall. “Is radio making the pie bigger or not? The evidence is that it’s not,” he said.

It’s also unclear how much performers might make if the bill passes. Many lawmakers have pressed the radio and recording industries to negotiate. Without negotiations, if the bill passes, the final royalty rate would likely be set by the federal Copyright Royalty Board.