WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON STEREOGUM THIS WEEK?!!?
Yesterday Sony BMG agreed to halt pay-for-play practices after an investigation by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer revealed that airplay of tunes by Jessica Simpson and J. Lo were "determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees," not artisitic merit and popularity. Spitzer's press release cites some specific examples that are fun to read ... 'cause it's always fun reading other people's e-mail!
"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."
"WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."
"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."I love how that last memo was prefaced with "OK, HERE IT IS IN BLACK AND WHITE AND IT'S SERIOUS." If Celine Dion ever gets a mention on this blog again, that's how it's gonna start.
Posted at 10:31 AM
major labels make me giggle.
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It's depressingly fascinating how things like this come full circle. Around the dawn of the rock and roll era, it was illegal for disk jockeys to have a financial "stake" in a record company--a conflict of interest of that type permanently scarred DJ Alan Freed, ending his career and then, his life. Now, however, Clear Channel is so embedded with the four remaining major corporate record labels that the guilt is impossible to track. The entire event is a Dick Clark-ish slap on the wrist for CC and a bit of cultural grandstanding for Spitzer. A true event would be to overturn the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed the de-regulation of the ownership of these radio stations and led to greedy conglomerates offering everything short of a handjob to get Celine Dion some pub. Something like this is not a shock in the slightest, but a big hooray to Stereogum for highlighting the story.
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Celene Dion, Courtney Love & MTV...slow news day gummer? no federline pix? come on gummer!
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man, shut the fuck up with that annoying 'gummer' shit
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I'm "shocked"! They don't show Joe Simpson offering blow to the DJs on Newlyweds! They all just really like her stuff!
It's too bad that the record companies aren't getting mad that Cyndi Lauper's version of "I drove all night" isn't being played more often. I'd fully support that.
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yeah, i remember when radio seemed to be more diverse in los angeles and it's like i could tell when they were paying for airplay because they would play certain songs ALL THE FRIGGIN TIME!! we would actually call the radio stations and request they stop playing the songs. but they couldn't because it came from programming. the worst in my opinion was puffy.
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If anyone's interested in more information, I've posted a longer piece:
http://marathonpacks.blogspot.com
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and this is why filesharing is the best thing to happen for music.
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Thanks Eric, (and Scott) for the informative posts.
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i would love to see the correspondence behind the britney spears machine.
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I think HJ's totally aren't off the table. It's the music industry hombre.
Anyways here's this riduculously in depth thing this really obssesed salon writer did.
http://archive.salon.com/ent/clear_channel/
It's basically the whole kit and kabootle.
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I would love to see the emails as well, but you have to admit, the radio doesn't really play Britney a lot...even before she went off the deep end. She's more of an MTV celebrity.
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And the emails make the music industry hotshots all sound like gumbas!
More seriously, though, has there been any hint of this payola practice extending itself to influential music blogs? It's just a stone throw down the road to reward certain writers for favorable coverage.....??
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That doesn't surprise me at all. Many artists get radio play despite dwindling record sales and bad performances... If only the companies would put that money into somehow improving the music or something of that nature...
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I love that Pitchfork's report ends:
"Fans of good music everywhere thank you, Mr. Spitzer. He can likely count on the New York hipster vote when he runs for Governor in 2006."
As if your average bedhead-haircut hipster was ever going to seriously think of voting for a Republican in the first place. They've just been to their first semester of college. Their professors opened their eyes.
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well, not to be a dweeb, but Spitzer is (quite) a Democrat
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That was my point. He could have sued Pabst Blue Ribbon and they'd still take him over a Republican.
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haha, that "they've just been to their first semester at college" comment is great.
and so, so true.
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I like how drudge puts this payola headline next to the headline of sony getting film rights to anti-bush book. go see it before he rearranges it http://www.drudgereport.com
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Uh, why would any of us bedhead hipsters give a shit anyway? When was the last time you relaxed your gag reflex enough to listen to mass-market/ClearChannel radio? Celine Dion's label SHOULD have to pay to get that crap on the air, and those stations' listeners happily consume whatever they get anyway.
Payola should no longer be an issue because broad-frequency radio is no longer the sole (or even the primary) platform for new artists. It's not "unfair" anymore because the majors are only competing with one another. As far as I'm concerned, the faster they spend, the sooner they go out of business... and that's just fine unless your name is Lars Ulrich.
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Willie your so tough, please IM me, I think I love you! private chat?
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sad, not surprising
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* WHO LISTENS TO THE RADIO ANYMORE???
* yes, I used all caps on purpose!!
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um...i still fail to see what is so bad about payola. as far as government regulations of coporations go, it seems pretty unecessary. i mean, it's all post-modern anyway...oh fuck! is it post-post modern??? oh damn...oh damn!!! ahhh!!! dual theory is evil! evil!!!
no, i know...it is about disclosure...which begs the question: why not let everyone know it? it just makes sense!
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I also urge you to shut the fuck up with that "gummer" shit -- but I'll decline the private chat as well.
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yeah, i didn't realize this stuff was secretive. a DJ friend of mine gets wined and dined by record execs frequently. i'm not so sure this really that big of a deal. i guess it could lead to bigger and worse things...
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yay buffalo
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gummer
perhaps hifi chewable. or something.
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For me the real shocker was the Franz Ferdinand's label is paying for them to get on the radio...WOW. Cuz in my mind I had them pegged as "authentic" and real rock & roll types. This calls for a paradigm shift.
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before everybody makes fun of just Jessica Simpson and those folk
my buddy worked at a station that got 25 pairs of tickets to see U2 plus a chartered bus to go to the concert for adding the PJ Harvey record (she was the opening act) ... so thats prob. $2500 in tickets + $500 for the bus for about 4 weeks of playing the song between midnight and 6a
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Just wait until those little Eichmans at Clear Channel get a listen to this crunchy groove.
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Maybe I'm out of the loop but I thought this was common knowledge. Do people really think that DJs and program directors choose to play music that they like? Hahahahahahaha Most of the time the DJs don't even have a choice. Whatever is preprogrammed in the computer for the day is what gets played.
When I was an intern at a radio station it always made me sad when people would call up off the air for requests and they were told the song was coming up... but it never would. Then they would air old off the air requests right before a song was scheduled to play so it looked like they cared about their listeners. As a young girl who waited and waited by the radio to hear the songs she requested, I was pissed.
I hate the radio.
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I love that we can't even get full service on Sony titles (Legacy reissues -- forget it!), but motherfuckers have been getting plasma tv's and flights for adding records in big markets. I mean, you know it happens...but it still amazes me. The record industry has their heads so far up their asses. Investigations or not, things aren't really going to change. The way that they do things may shift, but it doesn't really change.
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Maybe Radio sucks BECAUSE of the payola! It isn't a good thing because you never listen to radio. Maybe you would if the public had a real say in what got played.
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Pages of it:
http://somafm.com/payola/payola2.pdf
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maybe i'm a big lame pessimist, but things are not going to change. there are always going to be people with a lot of money controling what all of the little teenage girls want to buy/download whatever, and that my friends is called capitalism. until the teenage girls for some reason decide they're not into crap music, we're stuck. people - talk to your little sisters, they're in control. marketing. i'm going to plan a subversive children's show! that's the way to control their little minds! hahahhaha!!!!! dante's disneyland inferno.
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"Uh, why would any of us bedhead hipsters give a shit anyway? When was the last time you relaxed your gag reflex enough to listen to mass-market/ClearChannel radio? Celine Dion's label SHOULD have to pay to get that crap on the air, and those stations' listeners happily consume whatever they get anyway."
that is such pretentious bullshit. i hope you're being sarcastic. funnily enough, not everyone has time to devote to music blogs and zines and discovering the next band that no one has heard of. just because people have mass market habits doesn't mean they don't deserve to listen to good music. i know radio play + popularity means you'll have to give up your favorite band and claim you liked them two years ago when you bought their limited pressing, vinyl onlyl ep from thurston moore's asshole (but now they are soooo boring), but too bad. me, i love the idea of some 12-year-old girl getting her mind blown by a great song on the radio.
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word up frank and ava!! the radio is such a valuable source of public information that, with its span of frequencies, should reflect a wide range of music and world events. it is an amazing combination of democratic and capitalistic ideals. to phase it out entirely would leave those with fewer resources and access to information even more in the lurch.
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there's hope yet: collage radio (& public) wfmu is solid (is that a collage station?)... seen "pump up the volume"? the residents have a show they do every week out in SF...
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online radio? i beg you to check out http://kalvos.org/
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WFMU is not a college-affiliated station. It's "independent freeform radio".
http://www.wfmu.org/
The Residents have a weekly radio show? On what station?
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WFMU used to be associated with the now defunct Upsala College in East Orange, NJ. Now they broadcast out of a building in Jersey City not too far from the Exchange Place PATH station. It is a great station. I just wish their signal was a bit stronger, but you can stream it online and they archive shows as well. I recommend Terre T's Cherry Blossom Clinic, which airs on Saturday at 2 PM.
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Don't know if anyone is still posting on this article, but I'll throw my bit in anyway.
I go to college in Arkansas, but my home is in Dallas. We had this alternative station, 97.9 The Edge, which was very good and opened me up to a new sphere of good music beyong aggro-metal. They played "Cuts You Up" by Peter Murphy one night, and all the good pop alternative of the day, while introducing new good stuff. Nothing too amazing, but pretty ground-breaking for me through my junior high days.
Then they got bought by Clear Channel, like many stations around here. And then everything went to hell. Too many commercials, too much repeating of the same songs, and too many old songs played. Luckily I found good outlets online, but this kind of money-moving kills that spark that I found in The Edge. Just makes me sad to think that todays kids won't have the same experience.
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Clear Channel is satan
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You can't be 75601 serious?!?
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