Payola Problem No Surprise
I have been reading a lot of articles about this whole payola scandal. For those unfamiliar with payola, it means that record companies are bribing radio personnel with money or gifts in return for more spins (plays) for their artist. SonyBMG has paid $10 million to NY to settle charges and now has agreed to hire an overseer of promotion practices. The executive VP of promotion has been fired as well.
This really shouldn't come as much surprise to people. Record companies sign artists for one reason- making $$. Musicians do their job, hopefully, for fun and to express themselves creatively. The $$ ain't to shabby either once you've hit big. There was without doubt, at least to me, that record execs would do anything to get artists played. And in this highly publicized case, that was what happened. Corruption lies everywhere, you just need to probe deep enough to find it. Greed can also destroy people's lives, a theme displayed here and in the movie The Village.
As for the musicians, chances are they have no idea how the record companies are promoting them. They also are not the ones paying radio personnel off with gifts, making them even less innocent in this matter. This is one instance where the whole guilt by association does not work because it is the record companies job to promote their artist.
For the record, I dislike SonyBMG because of their damn safeguards on CDs. It's because of that that I could not upload an album on iTunes.
SOLO TO THE PET ROCK!
This really shouldn't come as much surprise to people. Record companies sign artists for one reason- making $$. Musicians do their job, hopefully, for fun and to express themselves creatively. The $$ ain't to shabby either once you've hit big. There was without doubt, at least to me, that record execs would do anything to get artists played. And in this highly publicized case, that was what happened. Corruption lies everywhere, you just need to probe deep enough to find it. Greed can also destroy people's lives, a theme displayed here and in the movie The Village.
As for the musicians, chances are they have no idea how the record companies are promoting them. They also are not the ones paying radio personnel off with gifts, making them even less innocent in this matter. This is one instance where the whole guilt by association does not work because it is the record companies job to promote their artist.
For the record, I dislike SonyBMG because of their damn safeguards on CDs. It's because of that that I could not upload an album on iTunes.
SOLO TO THE PET ROCK!
posted by Anonymous at 7/30/2005 01:24:00 PM
4 Comments:
My hatred for Sony is legendary....at least since the day they laid me (and most of my department) off almost 2 years ago. Couldn't happen to a more rotten group of idiots.
that would be a good reason to hate sony. i hate them for this whole thing as well as those damn safeguards. they are a real pain in the ass.
I believe that payola is the reason that most music radio is top 20 format. How else could a new record break the list?
warren:
i believe that now, in addition to a Top 40 format, some stations have also adopted 'JACK' which chooses at random songs to play. 'JACK' is starting to become more widely used.
as for payola, i found out that it has existed since the 19th century, when sheet music determined the success of an artist, not the albums. companies would pay street performers to play a piece, showing it in order for it to sell. these performers were paid off in booze, hookers, money, and clothes.
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