Category: Technology Author : Steven Hodson Posted: March 8, 2009
Tags : Music, payola, record companies
Back in the heydays of the the music business when Elvis was young, the Twist was the best dance around and Radio ruled it was nothing to see piles of money and drugs changing hands as DJ’s with a wink and a nod played what the record companies wanted played. It was the age of payola and the record companies loved it because they were making money hand over fist – at least until it was brought to a screeching halt after a number of scandals made the news.
Now of course the basic premise here is that it was the record companies that were in control of the whole payola scheme in order to make themselves richer so let’s fast forward to today and find that once again payola is once again rearing its ugly head, This time though it isn’t the record companies behind what is being termed as pay-for-play but rather web companies suggesting that this is the ideal outlet for up and coming artists
Earlier this week, Jango introduced a new program called Artist Airplay that offers a very straightforward proposition: the more you pay, the more you’ll get played on Jango’s Web radio stations. If enough listeners vote that they like you, you’ll get placed into regular rotation.
Source: cnet news
While Matt Rosoff at cnet writes about how bad of a deal something like Jango is for the artist one should point out that this is no different than the pay-for-post idea that has been plaguing the tech blogosphere and prompted more than bitchmeme. Just as with the blogosphere this kind of buying of content is wrong and I sincerely hope this – and any company that tries to copy the idea – ends up in the deadpool.
Mar 9, 2009
It is well known that some bands will pay to appear in clubs on the Sunset Strip. Even bands that don't pay to appear are often required to guarantee that a certain number of fans will show up to the club date; if they don't, your minutes on stage could very well be reduced.
Whatever you call it, the payola model is alive and well in many industries, as you note. One can debate the moral issues involved, but for me the only thing that would be wrong would be if payments were made and not disclosed.
Mar 9, 2009
Money talks people! Lets face it! Like any industry- the more $ you got- The more attention you get. Working in radio myself I know payola works on a loyalty program. If you add for an example any new releases from Sony/Bmg consistantly, the record company will offer first dibs on artist interviews, content and other exclusive content that money can't even buy. It's a trade situation that rewards the station for it's efforts for that record company. They all compete to have the most content played on-air which obviously gets the music heard by the masses. The end result is a win win for pop music. Other music does get left behind in terms of this competing and thus album sales and a large fan base are the way of surviving for those artists.
Another sneaky trick an artist/management/record company will do and often do is buy a few thousand copies of a forthcoming release either pre-sale or from the wholesaler and the track/album gets a high charting position which then in return gets radio stations/tv programs playing the track. From a 10thousand dollar investment you have got marketing and influence that money on it's own can't buy. This is modern payola in a sense. It works! See if you can figure out which artists do this. You will see a pattern emerge in the charts of a high start chart position and a quick drop back the following week. Interesting stuff if your a music lover.