Sony, whose $10 million payment will be distributed to New York State not-for-profit entities to fund programs aimed at music education and appreciation, was accused of:
-Outright bribes to radio programmers, including expensive vacation packages, electronics and other valuable items;
-Contest giveaways for stations' listening audiences;
-Payments to radio stations to cover operational expenses;
-Retention of middlemen, known as independent promoters, as conduits for illegal payments to radio stations;
-Payments for "spin programs," airplay under the guise of advertising.
E-mail correspondence obtained during the investigation was damning. In discussing a bribe given to a radio programmer in Buffalo, one promotion executive at SONY BMG's Epic Records wrote to a colleague at Epic:
Two weeks ago, it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE. That is what the four trips to Miami and hotel cost . . . At the end of the day, [David] Universal added GC [Good Charlotte] and Gretchen Wilson and hit Alex up for another grand and they settled for $750.00. So almost $5000.00 in two weeks for overnight airplay. He told me that Tommy really wanted him to do it so he cut the deal.
Another Epic employee who was trying to promote the group Audioslave to a Clear Channel programmer asked in an email:
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen.
A promotion employee unhappy with the times assigned for spins of the song "I Drove All Night" by Celine Dion wrote this internal email:
OK, HERE IT IS IN BLACK AND WHITE AND IT'S SERIOUS: IF A RADIO STATION GOT A FLYAWAY TO A CELINE [DION] SHOW IN LAS VEGAS FOR THE ADD, AND THEY'RE PLAYING THE SONG ALL IN OVERNIGHTS, THEY ARE NOT GETTING THE FLYAWAY. PLEASE FIX THE OVERNIGHT ROTATIONS IMMEDIATELY.
The investigation revealed that SONY BMG employees took steps to conceal many of the payments to individuals and radio stations, by using fictitious "contest winners" to document the transactions and make it appear as though the payments and gifts were going to radio listeners instead of station employees.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
note pic of Eliot trying to explain the curtains
2 - lono
I was disappointed that this story was not HUGE. Maybe it is because I am a music dork, but I wanted to see this splashed somewhere on the front page of every paper in America. Between this proven payola, and Clear Channel's monopoly... the music industry is in very dire straits.
No wonder everyone is turning to iPods & Satellite radio.
3 - Eric Olsen
I agree Lono, but it seems like people just don't much care about the business end of entertainment unless it directly affects the entertainment, which of course it does, but they don't much want to hear about it
4 - todd
Yeah and when you start telling people how the FCC is largely to blame for the bad music you hear on the radio, it goes right thru them.
If the FCC didn't regulate the airwaves, and drive up the costs of what is actually a fairly cheap method of communication to the point where only major players could comfortably compete, then there would not be so much consolidation and the "customers" would be the listeners again, not the across the board deals with multimedia companies.
Because then your competitors would lower their advo rates, and start playing music people wanted to hear...
Unless I am missing something
5 - Pam Avoledo
The domination of Clear Channel in the States has killed the single. However, it's the single which could generate some money. In Europe and Australia, the singles there are top-notch.
But in the States, even the single is without any extras (videos, remixes, multimedia gallery.)if one exists. There's a market out there for it (like iTunes) But aside from having a neat gadget, there isnt' any true incentive.
Unfortunately, Sony (as well as the other record companies) have gotten so caught up in the bottom line, they forgot that there are people out there who want depth to their music.
Trends only last a few months, a catalogue album sells forever.
6 - Cerulean
"note pic of Eliot trying to explain the curtains--Eric Olsen"
Watch how you talk about my boyfriend :)
This payola scandal is just the visible aspect of the problem. I feel that all media is coopted by corporations. Sometimes I try to counteract it here by some reviews. A certain movie was being heavily praised and promoted by "reviewers" even though it was crap, so I wrote about that. Another was being trashed without cause and I wrote about that. To me, talent is important. I may be pretty impotent to combat the powers that be but I gotta try. When I find local malls that won't carry our alternative weekly I let them know that that isn't ok and I know that something political is going on. A large theater chain was giving inaccurate times for movie showings to the alternative weekly for their schedule because they were in bed with the daily newspapers. Many times I called out the theater manager when I got there at the wrongly stated time and harrangued him. I always try to confront this stuff.
Maybe you can make a selling point for Blogcritics that we aren't corporately influenced. Independent reviews.
7 - Eric Olsen
thanks Cerulean, maybe you can do an interview for us with your boyfriend?
Not only are we independent, but our writers are independent of us - THAT'S indepdendence
8 - Phillip Winn
Individual writers can be corporately influenced, though. If anybody's reading, I'm willing to accept payola, no problem.
And Cerulean, I'll let you know for which reviews I'm accepting cash, so you can counter them. :-)
9 - Eric Olsen
for best internal balance, I pay myself