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Topic: Radio Exec's claims of payola draw fire |
chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Tom Olson
From:
Spokane, WA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 12:22 pm |
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Interesting -- I wouldn't doubt for a minute that payola is rampant in the radio industry. But, there's something I don't understand about the article.
Quote from the article:
** "Unlike independent consultants who provide annual promotion budgets to pop and rock stations, several urban-music quarterbacks are believed to make direct cash payments to radio programmers to play specific songs, say Sneed and other sources. Some quarterbacks kick back a slice of that money to the lower-level record-label employees who hire them, Sneed and others allege."**
I don't understand the last part about kicking back a portion of the money that is payed to the programmers to record-label employees. It doesn't make sense to me.
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 5:52 pm
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Interesting. Did you notice Rep. Conyers' wording...
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| When radio stations, so-called independent promoters, or their employees demand money from record companies and recording artists for airplay, the payments are illegal unless disclosed... |
Of course, he didn't say anything about the radio stations accepting money that wasn't demanded. I guess if they ask for money, that's payola. But if money is just handed (donated? contributed? apportioned? gifted?) to them with no agreements...there's certainly nothing "illegal" about that!
("Yes, your Honor, we took 10 grand from Mr. Shady, but we never promised him we'd play his singer's records!")
What do you think?[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 07 March 2002 at 05:58 PM.] |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 6:44 pm
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| Quote: |
| I don't understand the last part about kicking back a portion of the money that is payed to the programmers to record-label employees. It doesn't make sense to me. |
As I understand it, this money is part of the promotional money that is in reality part of the loan to the 'artist' to produce and promote their record and will ultimately be charged back to the artist against their record sales and royalties. The quarterback, hired by the record company, pays off the programmer, who now is best friends with the quarterback; and the programmer, as a gesture of gratitude, kicks back a portion to his friends back at the label, who sent the nice quarterback over in the first place. So in this scenario, the money that goes around and eventually gets back to the record exec, doesn't really originate with the exec or the company. It comes from the artist being promoted, so this is another way for the exec to "churn" the account. You have to remember that record company execs are in reality, loan officers. |
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Tom Olson
From:
Spokane, WA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 7:20 pm
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Chas -- thanks for the explanation. I think I understand, now -- but if that is indeed the case, then that means either one of two things must also be true:
1) since the money, in reality, belongs to the artist, then the artist must know about the payola and the kickbacks;
OR
2) since the money, in reality, belongs to the artist, then the artist doesn't know about the payola and the kickbacks, which means the record exec is guilty of embezzlement, or at least theft.
However, an artist who simply accepts thousands of dollars worth of "mystery charges" to his/her account without knowing or asking what they're for is a complete moron.
This, in turn, means that the artist in such a case either knows about the kickbacks and is equally culpable, or the artist is a complete moron. |
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Dave Birkett
From:
Oxnard, CA, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 7:32 pm
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| In the 1980s, when corporations had a lot of waste and loose ends like record companies do, they were prime targets of corporate raiders who believed that they could tighten up operations and really increase the value of a company. And they were quite often right. I've always suspected record execs, because of their casbah style of doing business, were not giving stockholders their fair share. A real corporate raider, not a crook, could really shake up the record business. |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 7:40 pm
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| To paraphrase Louie, the French gendarme in "Casablanca", I'm shocked! Shocked to see that bribery and kickbacks are going on here!" |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2002 9:25 pm
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| "The Entertainment Industry is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where theives and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter thompson |
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David Pennybaker
From:
Conroe, TX USA
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Posted 8 Mar 2002 7:29 am
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Who's Hunter Thompson?
I heard Steve Wilkinson make that quote, once. He was talking to one of the band members, or his manager, or something, and was relaying that quote. I never did hear who he was quoting.
When was the quote made?
------------------
The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons
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Dave Van Allen
From:
Doylestown, PA , US , Earth
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