Nice Payola Article

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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/347366p-296498c.html



"In one case involving Lopez, in a Jan. 31 memo - just before "Get
Right" hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart - an intermediary to
Sony BMG music said, "Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer
Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236, we bought 63 spins at a cost of
$3,600." The same memo detailed that "in this week's Good Charlotte Top
40 Spin Increase of 61, we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of
$17K [thousand]."


"Sony BMG planned to give Michael Saunders, program director of Power
105 - WWPR - a plasma TV and entertainment system in exchange for
increased airplay of company releases, according to E-mails.
A spokesman for Spitzer's office said the deal never went through
because Sony learned of the investigation.
Saunders did not return phone calls."



"Daniel Glass, CEO of New York-based Artemis Records, a small company
with a limited promotion budget, said the impact of payola is
demonstrated by the scant radio time given independent releases.
"We are 23% to 28% of record sales, but we're 3% to 7% of radio
airplay," he said."



Go Eliot Spitzer!





David Correia
www.Celebrationsound.com

 

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I can't believe that with all the hirings and firings at record companies
and radio, there haven't been more whistleblowers.

It's 2005 and this is the first article I've read on the subject, ever. Why
are the have-nots continuing to protect the haves by not making more noise
about this?

 

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> I can't believe that with all the hirings and firings at record companies
> and radio, there haven't been more whistleblowers.
>
> It's 2005 and this is the first article I've read on the subject, ever.
Why
> are the have-nots continuing to protect the haves by not making more noise
> about this?

I've got a position on this issue, but I should preface that I am
(thankfully) not in music promotions, and this is mostly conjecture.

The "big-time" marketing model is to spend millions promoting 20 relatively
similar bands, generally only 3 will break even, but usually one of them
will really take off, and pay for the other 17 flops, which are of course
ditched with extreme prejudice. The sooner they figure out which one is
most likely to pay off, the less they have to spend on the prospectus. For
an effective study they all have to be marketed in a similar manner, and by
far the best means of doing so expeditently on a mass scale is radio, so
labels are crawling over each other to get the requisite market data ASAP.
Payola is inevitable.

The indy marketing model is to work each band to their fullest. While radio
rotation can certainly help, putting a $5k recording side-by-side with a
$150k one isn't always good publicity. Generally people who like mainstream
radio aren't receptive to indy acts anyway, and IMO the best presentation
for an indy act is live. If the act is suited for mass consumption, then it
will take 85% of gross sales to get there, so it had better be over 6x the
market compared to what could be had on an indy basis at an expense of 15%,
for example, and generally there is no middle-ground. Often it's
financially better not to aim high, but instead work established markets at
a higher rate of return. Ever notice how many festivals are full of great
bands you've never heard of?

Which brings us to the heart of the matter: advertisers want their
commercials airing between hit songs. So in effect the primary income
source for radio stations around the world is what divides the classes - de
facto payola. That's something of an uphill battle for indy labels to
besiege.

It's not always the case though, up in Canada last year an indy band (The
Trews) hit #1 on the national radio charts. Their follow-up album was
recently released under Sony/BMG, produced by Jack Douglas, and they're
currently touring with Robert Plant, having recently opened for the Rolling
Stones...