Payola"-Alive and....well,..alive!

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Jul 25, 12:13 PM EDT
Sony agrees to $10M 'payola' settlement
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- One of the nation's biggest music companies, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, agreed Monday to pay $10 million and to stop paying radio station employees to feature its artists to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

The agreement resulted from Spitzer's investigation of suspected "pay for play" practices in the music industry.

A Sony BMG spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Spitzer said Sony BMG has agreed to hire a compliance officer to monitor promotion practices and to issue a statement acknowledging "improper conduct" and pledging higher standards.

He commended the company for its cooperation.

"Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for air play based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees," Spitzer said. "This agreement is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry."

Spitzer had requested documents and information from EMI, Warner Music Group, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group as well as from Sony BMG, which is a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.

Spitzer said his investigation showed Sony BMG paid for vacation packages and electronics for radio programmers, paid for contest giveaways for listeners, paid some operational expenses of radio stations and hired middlemen known as independent promoters to provide illegal payments to radio stations to get more airplay for its artists.

Spitzer also said e-mails among company executives showed top officials were aware of the payments.

Spitzer said Sony BMG employees sought to conceal some payments by using fictitious contest winners to document the transactions.

In one case, an employee of Sony's Epic label was trying to promote the group Audioslave to a station and asked: "WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."

In another case, a promoter unhappy that Celine Dion's "I Drove All Night" was being played overnight on some stations threatened to revoke a trip to a Dion show in Las Vegas unless the play times improved.

Sony BMG Music is an umbrella organization for several prominent record labels, including Arista Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music International and So So Def Records.

Star artists signed with the Arista label alone include Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, OutKast, Pink and Sarah McLachlan.

The $10 million will be distributed to not-for-profit entities and earmarked for music education programs, Spitzer said.

Record companies can't offer financial incentives under a 1960 federal law that made it a crime punishable by a $10,000 fine and up to a year in prison to offer money or other inducements to give records airplay. The practice was called "payola," a contraction of "pay" and "Victrola" record players.

The law was passed in response to the payola scandals of the 1950s and early 1960s that implicated some then-famous disc jockeys.

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Kenny Burford · From: Independence, Missouri USA

As my wife has said all along, "payola," just ain't some little town in Kansas.

Now my next question is, why aren't some of the record company executives getting prison time? I believe the original disc jockey in rockin' roll who got caught up in the payola scandall of the 50s got prison time, isn't that correct? Some one please correct me here if I am wrong.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Kenny, it's been going on for a long time. Back in the late 70's we tried to get some local recordings on 61 Country (WDAF) and on KFKF in KC, KS. Neither would play "local records" or at least that was their excuse, but 61 Country was playing River Rock records and that was (maybe still is) a local KC group.

One particular song, that I did the steel guitar on, was "Tonight I'm Taking Charlie's Angel's Home", written by John Moudy (KC native) and sung by Ron Cowans on "Big K" records (a KC studio). The country station in St Joe was playing it, we sent promo copies to a lot of stations in the south and it made their play list and even Charlie Douglas that had the all night "truckers" show in New Orleans was playing it. But, we couldn't get it played locally in the KC area.

As a side note, the "Charlie's Angels" that Mel Tillis came out with was pleasurized from our record, but they don't steal songs just like there's no more payola.....

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

When I worked with Rank and File they were managed for a while by an excellent gentleman by the name of Stan Bly who, as an "independent promoter" had been the sacrificial lamb for a major label that was caught in a payola investigation in the early '80's. He took the rap and lost his job while the rest of the business carried on as if nothing had happened.

I suspect that this recent case will have pretty much the same effect on the music business as that one did.

[This message was edited by Dave Grafe on 25 July 2005 at 01:04 PM.]

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Kenny,
Here's the info that you are seeking:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.history-of-rock.com/freed.htm

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  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   


  mm   if it ain't got that twang.


       www.ntsga.com

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Smiley it was also a "pleasure" for Mel. He used someone else's idea and it was a "pleasure" not to have to pay a "co writer".

I've heard of those that change one word in a song and then want part of the song.

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Jack,

Happens all the time. I wrote "Crazy Waltz" that was recorded by Hellen O'Connell and Gizelle McKinsey and Dave Cavanaugh's orchestra, as well as Pee Wee King. I got 1/3 of the royalties. Pee Wee got 1/3 and Redd Stewart got 1/3. That's just the way it worked. (33-1/3% of something is better than 100% of nothing.)

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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I don't doubt that many "perks" the radio people get from the indie promoters (going into the tens of thousands of dollars for each station) aren't recorded anywhere.

This under-the-table money may be good for business, but it's illegal. Radio stations are granted licenses to operate in the public trust. If they're breaking the law by accepting payola (in any form), their license should be revoked.

Sure, fine the record companies, and then...shut down their cronies (the radio stations) for a year for each offense of accepting "pay-for-play".

That would put a stop to this crap!

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Roy,
I remember that goin' on back in the 50's. It was,"I want half writer & ALL the publishing,or I don't record your song!" This was being done by some of the "big boys"! I'm sure its still goin' on today too.

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  ~ ~


  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   


  mm   if it ain't got that twang.


       www.ntsga.com

Ron Page · From: Penn Yan, NY USA

Helps to futher explain the homogeneous nature of play lists from station to station. Give Clear Channel or JCOR the payola and the result resonates across their vast network of stations.

It further explains the music too. You'd have to pay me to play most of it.

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HagFan

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

Which only underscores the argument against a monopoly like Clear Channel- the Payola doesn't even have to be on the level of the DJ, just pay the parent company and they issue the directives to the program directors on the local level. Been going on forever, ain't gonna stop- the ole-boy network is alive and well in the new millenium!

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Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

I don't know anyone who still listens to radio. It's soooooo last century.

Glyn Bone · From: Halifax.Nova Scotia. Canada * R.I.P.

What`s a `radio` ????

Glyndwr

Theresa Galbraith · From: Goodlettsville,Tn. USA

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

erik · Posted 27 Jul 2005 4:12 pm

Wonder if it's showing up on their tax returns.