A follow up article...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163565,00.html

Was that real? It was on fox news, but it was written with so much editorialism... or perhaps it was an editorial, Squirrgle. Either way, I wish it'd been black-and-white and iron-clad.

I hesitated to post it since it was from Fox news. But that's the article that was forwarded to me.

Here's an MTV article on the matter:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/150632 ... lines=true

how can you not trust this guy?

I want this to be important and far-reaching, which is a guarantee that it will be neither.

What do you buy for the girl that has everything? A hit!

I noticed these are all the names behind music I repeatedly wondered how in the hell this crap got so big that they were everywhere. Not a big surprise.

Am I the only one surprised to see Ferdinand thrown under this bus?

FF are signed to Domino. Are Domino an evil tenticle of Sony BMG?

yes, MTV is a much better source than Fox News.

I approve of the existence of Eliot Spitzer.

That explains why Silverchair is STILL on the air. It explains a lot, actually.

Didn't Limp Bizkit pay a couple radio stations to have "Kounterfeit" or some mispelled song title like that get played when they were attempting to bust out on the scene? I thought it was now legal if you draw up the contracts and are open about the deal, thus having hard evidence that you received the spins promised to you and the station was reimbursed for putting you in the rotation.
The only thing wrong with this in my opinion was that it still seemed to be the behind the scenes, under the desk, backdoor sort of payola that occurred in the early days of Rock. No respectable artist should do this or allow their record company to do it, but I won't frown on some shill doing it to become a pop superstar.

ff i think is distributed by sony bmg, they were picked up after the record picked up.

here's some awesomely damning evidence in this case:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/jul/payola2.pdf

vote for him when the time comes.

There's a difference between a band sucking up to a station by playing their festival & a record company giving a DJ free shit.

http://www.wweek.com/html/cover041598.html

This is the news story about Limp Bizkit's Counterfeit payola issue.

The station got $5,000 in return for spinning "Counterfeit" 50 times.

I personally don't see anything wrong with Payola.

When I was on the air, it would have been nice if Screaming Trees or someone gave me a TV or some cash.

If I run a radio business and I can bring more cash in the door by selecting payola-fueled records, and I can spin said records without alienating my listening base, where's the foul?

oh boy.

The foul is that instead of figuring out what we want to hear, you're being paid to play what record companies want us to buy. It's dishonest. Your take above seems to be based on the idea that payola or not, the playlists would be about the same. I don't think that's the case, in the slightest. There really is some awful bullshit that not only gets played, but gets run into the ground, because some radio station's bottom line needed help. I'm sorry, but fuck 'em if they can't operate without the dirty cash. And if that means radio has to go away, fine I guess. Better that it run by and for the people who want to listen to it than by and for the corps with enough $ to float it.

The bolded "business" above, by the way, is what pushed me, if you're curious. Tobacco companies run a business too, and if advertising to kids brings more cash in the door, where's the foul? Not a 1-to-1 comparison, mind you, as I don't think Limp Bizkit will actually give me cancer, but operating in the black cannot be grounds to do just anything.

i think it was expored above, but discolsure is where it gets icky for me. it doesn't surpirse me that they got busted, nor that it happens. what sucks is that most people don't know that, they're fed the same 20 artists because somebody had enough money to pay for them to hear the same 20 artists. it's like brainwashing audiences into thinking "these are deserving artists and stars" when really it's "this is music that is being played because of cash and loot."

to me, there's not difference between that and just one long-broadcasted commercial. if i see U2 playing for an iPod commercial, i'm under the impression that iTunes paid U2 with money or benefits of sorts. if you're a station or a promoter and spinning stuff for money or laptops or your own little holiday, tell your listeners so, then they'll know this "advertisement" has been paid for.

agreed. i think to do otherwise is criminal.

You can't brainwash a general audience that supports "American Idol" winners and runners-up.

Whoops....I TOTALLY misread yer original post. Not awake enough at that point, I guess. Sorry about that.

I agree on the disclosure, although I don't think this is any big secret. Labels have always engaged in these types of "push" strategies in addition to the consumer-targeted "pull" strategies.

I view payola as nothing more than another account number in the advertising budget. They give incentives to stores to put the crap on sale. They provide promo materials, and even send the reps in to staple the flats to the display boards.

Commercial radio is not governed by what people want to hear, it's governed by what context is palatable to advertisers and holds enough market share to justify the rates.

If the labels feed the beast through payola, so be it. The audience is still listening, regardless of what made them "like" what they're hearing.

It's no different from paid product placements in movies, paid song insertions in television shows, etc.

It's also why I never listen to the radio, haven't for years, won't for many more. My alarm clock has a cd player, and the antenna is disconnected in the car. The only exception is The Underground Garage on Sirius, because the music kicks.

The giant commercial stations can do whatever they please. You're absolutely correct in that their programming day is one long stream of commercials, both the ad spots and the music.