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July 26, 2005
This explains how all those crappy bands gets on the radio
Sony BMG Apologizes For Payola Involving J. Lo, Avril, Good Charlotte, Others
The highlights:
The payola has got to stop — that's the word from New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who on Monday announced a settlement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, which has agreed to cease its "pay for play" policy.
For instance, the program director for Buffalo, New York's WKSE-FM received several flights (to New York, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with guests) in exchange for adding Jennifer Lopez's "I'm Real" (in July 2001), Good Charlotte's "Hold On" (in November 2003) and Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" (in August 2004) to his station's play list.
In response to one such offer, a program director e-mailed the label, saying, "I'm a whore this week, what can I say?"
"Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, airtime is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees," Spitzer said. "This [BMG settlement] is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry."
Sony BMG acknowledged that fraudulent practices and payola took place and called it "wrong and improper."
Posted by pmadsen at July 26, 2005 02:35 PM
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