AP Wire: Radio conglomerates eyed in 'payola' probe

[PhilipShore]

Associated Press
Radio conglomerates eyed in 'payola' probe
Feb. 08, 2006

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/business/13822204.htm

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday he has subpoenaed many of the nation's largest radio conglomerates in his "payola" investigation of major artists and songs that he claims got air time because of payoffs by recording companies.

Spitzer wouldn't identify the major radio companies that have been subpoenaed or release the artists and songs that he claims benefited from the pay-for-play practice for cash, trips and gifts like the scandal that rocked early Rock n' Roll in the 1950s and 1960s.

"A lot of the major songs have been implicated in this and it showed how pervasive the payola infrastructure had become," Spitzer told The Associated Press. "Probably many of the songs that were beneficiaries of the payola scheme would have succeeded without it, but certainly payola became part of the promotional structure and was integral to the game to get songs to the top. Major artists, major songs were sent up the charts through improper payments to buy spins on the air that translated into sales."

Warner Music Group Corp. agreed last year to pay $5 million to settle its part of the investigation, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed to pay $10 million.

[Rick Myers]

1. Clear Channel has been pay to play for years!!!

:grr:

[anotherdrew]

19. how could any republican think there was anything wrong with it?

To them, isn't every song play really just a long Ad? Gee, why _shouldn't_ companies play to have their intellectual property marketed? It's an expensive free market...

The mainstream is warm and wet and trickling down their leg

> ignore mainstream media to death <

[Mithras61]

2. There aren't THAT many radio companies...

that COULD be a part of this and have the effect that Spitzer is claiming simply because they would need an extensive presence across the country.

[stepnw1f]

3. Time to Break Up Monopolies

Break them up

[calimary]

23. From your keyboard to God's eyes.

THAT is most of our trouble, then and there. A few huge conglomerates hold all the cards.

[pinniped]

4. That no talent, ho-down dancing hack Asslee Simpson is....

probably on the list.

[zbdent]

5. Bet they find a lot of payola for

carrying Rush . . . Limbaugh, that is . . . well before the stations were bought up by Klear Kchannel Kworldwide (the Ks are silent in the second & third words)

[Born Free]

17. bet they never look

payola for right wing talk is acceptable

[madmark]

6. the reason why music on the radio sucks so hard

[megatherium]

18. I remember reading that the Pink Floyd balked at paying to stay on the

air, when they had a big hit single, Another Brick in the Wall. They thought that as the Pink Floyd (one of the most popular and best selling bands in rock history) that no one could extort them. Suddenly, Another Brick in the Wall was off the air on LA's biggest station. This was in 1980.

[UpInArms]

7. Spitzer eyes radio conglomerates in (payola) probe

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/business/13822204.htm

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday he has subpoenaed many of the nation's largest radio conglomerates in his "payola" investigation of major artists and songs that he claims got air time because of payoffs by recording companies.

Spitzer wouldn't identify the major radio companies that have been subpoenaed or release the artists and songs that he claims benefited from the pay-for-play practice for cash, trips and gifts like the scandal that rocked early Rock n' Roll in the 1950s and 1960s.

"A lot of the major songs have been implicated in this and it showed how pervasive the payola infrastructure had become," Spitzer told The Associated Press. "Probably many of the songs that were beneficiaries of the payola scheme would have succeeded without it, but certainly payola became part of the promotional structure and was integral to the game to get songs to the top. Major artists, major songs were sent up the charts through improper payments to buy spins on the air that translated into sales."

Warner Music Group Corp. agreed last year to pay $5 million to settle its part of the investigation, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed to pay $10 million.

A 1960 federal law and related state laws bar record companies from offering undisclosed financial incentives in exchange for airplay. The practice was called "payola," a contraction of "pay" and "Victrola," the old wind-up record player.

...more...

Go Eliot! :yourock:

[LSparkle]

8. Are you listening, Clear Channel???

Tee hee hee!

[wtbymark]

9. clear channel is one that he is investigating

well, maybe one day musicians (def: one who possesses knowledge of music)will actually be able to have their music heard

[cpamomfromtexas]

10. Whats the difference between this and

Doctors receiving payola for writing prescriptions?

Did you know pharmaceutical salespeople can see exactly how many scripts for drugs each doctor writes?

It is very common for reps to have to provide lunches, tickets, trips etc to get face time with doctors.

Just as it is illegal for me to audit a company that I own stock in, it should be illegal for any doctor to get anything from a pharmaceutical company. NOT EVEN A PAD OF POST IT NOTES!

[madmom]

11. Well I would guess the Dixie Chicks have nothing to worry about.

[OKNancy]

12. Kick

[Judi Lynn]

13. 100's of Radio Stations in Payola Probe

100's of Radio Stations in Payola Probe
FCC Commissioner: Evidence of 'Systematic Betrayal of the Responsibility of Broadcasters'

By BRIAN ROSS, RICHARD ESPOSITO & VIC WALTER

Feb. 9, 2006 — Hundreds of radio stations are under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission in the payola scandal rocking the music industry, ABC has learned.

"The FCC staff is working with voluminous evidence right now. It's a complicated and wide-ranging investigation." FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

"This is potentially the most wide spread and flagrant violation of FCC rules in the history of American broadcasting," Adelstein said. "We've never seen evidence of such a systematic betrayal of the responsibility of broadcasters."

Payola — or pay-for-play — is a practice seemingly as old as the recording industry itself. In the past the money went to rogue disc jockeys in exchange for increasing the air play for individual songs and driving those songs to the top of the charts. In the modern version, the money goes to the bottom line of the radio stations and the conglomerates that own them, according to New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
(snip/...)]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=1600966&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[truthisfreedom]

14. in the music industry, we've been aware of this since the original payola

scandal. they were required to say certain things on the air, and believed this would protect them against "payola" charges, but it's been non-stop pay-for-play for decades now and it's been just terrifying to the indie record industry, which has perpetually been shut out of the radio scene, eliminating any possibility of small-time players to rise to stardom.

[Wilms]

15. Capitalists deplore the free market n/t

[lakeguy]

16. hey, that payola should be going to us! could help offset all the

money i've been forced to pay for killing innocents around the world. i feel better now:sarcasm:

[BadgerKid]

20. Timely article: "The Science of Hit Songs"

By Bjorn Carey / LiveScience Staff Writer / posted: 09 February 2006 / 02:01 pm ET

When Ashlee Simpson tops the charts while a critically acclaimed ex-Beatle's album fails to crack the top 200, eyebrows go up in the marketing world. So what makes a hit? A new study reveals that we make our music purchases based partly on our perceived preferences of others.

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060209_hit_songs.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

21. This started with MTV.

For a long time now, MTV has charged some pretty major green to get songs into rotation. There is a sliding scale, one I am no longer familiar with and accurate about, to get songs into rotation.

The radio stations were copying what they saw.

[Karenina]

22. Not really.

Payola in radio dates back 50 years. In the 70's there was a bit of a dust up about it. I organized a campaign amongst my fellow day-job switchboard operators to break Luther Van Dross's first record, released by an Indie. The difference then was, we WERE ABLE to circumvent the suits with a "grass-roots" response. Today that is simply not possible.