| Subject: Sony's illegal activities |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 14:17:40 08/08/05 Mon
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "Sony bribes radio, tv, MTV, to get their music played." on 13:47:20 08/08/05 Mon
In the good old days, you could listen to your transistor radio safe in the knowledge that the DJ who was spinning Pat Boone's latest ditty wasn't doing so because he actually liked it. Every time he loaded those 45s on to the turntable, a record company middleman was stuffing another dollar bill into a brown envelope.
They called it payola, a dirty pay-for-play agreement between record labels and radio stations that was stamped out in the 1960s. Or so they said.
Of course, payola never went away, it just became more subtle, as record companies and radio stations found other ways to keep playlists predictable and bland. And if you've wondered why today's mainstream stations make listeners subsist on a diet of J. Lo, Beyoncé and Britney Spears, the answer came this week.
Sony BMG, the giant whose labels include Epic, Arista and Columbia, agreed to pay a $10-million (U.S.) fine and clamp down on payola practices following a probe headed by corporate corruption nemesis Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney-General.
Mr. Spitzer released documents showing independent promoters hired by Sony BMG executives showered DJs and stations with gifts, vacations and other incentives to get their acts played. The company even paid people to pose as fans and call stations repeatedly to request certain songs.
Subtlety was not a quality prized by the middlemen, as an e-mail sent by one promoter shows: "WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen!!!"
The probe continues, expanding to other big music labels, as well as the corporations, such as Clear Channel and Infinity, whose radio stations were allegedly among those involved in taking Sony BMG's incentives.
Sordid though the whole episode is, it's comforting to know that when it came to payola, there were radio executives who found some things beyond the pale.
Some of the e-mails depicted one middleman for Epic Records getting mad at radio stations that had accepted free trips to Las Vegas in return for playing a Celine Dion single.
They were playing the song a lot; thankfully, it was always overnight, when no-one was listening.
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