Sony Payola Scandal

[J Michaels]

I would like to hear from anyone who works or has worked in radio regarding these two stories from Fox News. Any experience with this?


Sony Bought Airtime for J-Lo and Others
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
By Roger Friedman

I always say, when people ask me, that the so-called vipers of the movie business would not last a day in the record business.

Now New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office has decided to prove the point.

"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."

"Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K ..."

Ironically, it didn't help, as the internal memo from Sony Music quoted above notes, that the company actually lost "spins" — or plays of the record — even though it laid out money for them.

The memos, revealed yesterday in Spitzer's investigation of payola at the company, will be mind-blowing to those who are not so jaded to think records are played on the radio because they're good.

We've all known for a long time that contemporary pop music stinks. We hear "hits" on the radio and wonder, "How can this be?"

Now we know. And memos from both Sony's Columbia and Epic Records senior vice presidents of promotions circa 2002-2003 — whose names are redacted in the reports, but are well known in the industry — spell out who to pay and what to pay them in order to get the company's records on the air.

From Epic, home of J-Lo, a memo from Nov. 12, 2002, a "rate" card that shows that radio stations in the top 23 markets will receive $1,000, stations in markets 23-100 get $800, lower markets $500.

"If a record receives less than 75 spins at any given radio station, we will not pay the full rate," the memo to DJs states. "We look forward to breaking many records together in the future."

Take Jennifer Lopez's awful record, "Get Right," with its shrill horns and lifted rap. It's now clear that was a "bought" sensation when it was released last winter. So, too, were her previous "hits" "I'm Glad" and "I'm Real," according to the memos.

All were obtained by Sony laying out dough and incentives. It's no surprise. There isn't a person alive who could hum any of those "songs" now, not even J-Lo herself.

Announced yesterday: Sony Music — now known as Sony/BMG — has to pony up a $10 million settlement with New York state. It should be $100 million. And this won't be the end of the investigation. Spitzer's office is looking into all the record companies. This is just the beginning.

But what a start: Black-and-white evidence of plasma TVs, laptop computers and PlayStation 2 consoles being sent to DJs and radio programmers in exchange for getting records on the air.

Not just electronic gifts went to these people, either. According to the settlement papers, the same people also received expensive trips, limousines and lots of other incentives to clutter the airwaves with the disposable junk that now passes for pop music.

More memos: "We ordered a laptop for Donnie Michaels at WFLY in Albany. He has since moved to WHYI in Miami. We need to change the shipping address."

One Sony memo from 2002: "Can you work with Donnie to see what kind of digital camera he wants us to order?"

Another, from someone in Sony's Urban Promotion department: "I am trying to buy a walkman (sic) for Toya Beasley at WRKS/NY.... Can PRS get it to me tomorrow by 3 p.m. ... I really need to get the cd by then or I have to wait a week or two before she does her music again ..."

Nice, huh? How many times have I written in this column about talented and deserving artists who get no airplay, and no attention from their record companies? Yet dozens of records with little or no artistic merit are all over the radio, and racked in displays at the remaining record stores with great prominence.

Thanks to Spitzer's investigation, we now get a taste of what's been happening.

More memos. This one from Feb. 13, 2004: "Gave a jessica trip to wkse to secure Jessica spins and switchfoot."

That would be "jessica" as in Jessica Simpson, for whom Sony laid out big bucks in the last couple of years to turn her into something she's clearly not: a star.

Then there's the story of a guy named Dave Universal, who was fired from Buffalo's WKSE in January when there was word that Spitzer was investigating him.

Universal (likely a stage name) claimed he did nothing his station didn't know about. That was probably true, but the DJ got trips to Miami and Yankee tickets, among other gifts, in exchange for playing Sony records.

From a Sony internal memo on Sept. 8, 2004: "Two weeks ago it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE."

Franz Ferdinand, Jessica Simpson, J-Lo, Good Charlotte, etc. Not exactly The Who, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin or The Kinks. The "classic" is certainly gone from rock.

The question now is: Who will take the fall at Sony for all this? It's not like payola is new. The government investigated record companies and radio stations in the late 1950s, and again in the mid-1970s. (When we were in high school, we used to laugh about how often The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again?" was played on WABC. We were young and naïve!)

Spitzer is said to be close friends with Sony's new CEO, Andrew Lack, who publicly welcomed the new investigations earlier this year when they were announced. Did Lack anticipate using Spitzer's results to clean house? Stay tuned ...

***** STORY #2*****

Sony Settles 'Payola' Probe for $10M
Monday, July 25, 2005

ALBANY, N.Y. — Sony BMG Music Entertainment (search) agreed Monday to pay $10 million and to stop paying radio station employees to feature its artists to settle an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (search).

The agreement resulted from Spitzer's investigation of suspected "pay for play" practices in the music industry.

A Sony BMG spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Spitzer said Sony BMG has agreed to hire a compliance officer to monitor promotion practices and to issue a statement acknowledging "improper conduct" and pledging higher standards.

He commended the company for its cooperation.

"Our investigation shows that, contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for air play based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees," Spitzer said. "This agreement is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry."

Spitzer had requested documents and information from EMI, Warner Music Group, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group as well as from Sony BMG, which is a joint venture of Sony Corp (SNE) and Bertelsmann AG.

Spitzer said his investigation showed Sony BMG paid for vacation packages and electronics for radio programmers, paid for contest giveaways for listeners, paid some operational expenses of radio stations and hired middlemen known as independent promoters to provide illegal payments to radio stations to get more airplay for its artists.

Spitzer also said e-mails among company executives showed top officials were aware of the payments.

Spitzer said Sony BMG employees sought to conceal some payments by using fictitious contest winners to document the transactions.

In one case, an employee of Sony's Epic label was trying to promote the group Audioslave (search) to a station and asked: "WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."

In another case, a promoter unhappy that Celine Dion's (search) "I Drove All Night" was being played overnight on some stations threatened to revoke a trip to a Dion show in Las Vegas unless the play times improved.

Sony BMG Music is an umbrella organization for several prominent record labels, including Arista Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music International and So So Def Records.

Star artists signed with the Arista label alone include Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, OutKast, Pink and Sarah McLachlan.

The $10 million will be distributed to not-for-profit entities and earmarked for music education programs, Spitzer said.

Record companies can't offer financial incentives under a 1960 federal law that made it a crime punishable by a $10,000 fine and up to a year in prison to offer money or other inducements to give records airplay. The practice was called "payola," a contraction of "pay" and "Victrola" record players.

The law was passed in response to the payola scandals of the 1950s and early 1960s that implicated some then-famous disc jockeys.

[J Michaels]

Not that any of us ever really doubted this was going on... But it makes me wonder why the hell they pick the artists they pick to do this for. Everyone knows some band or singer/songwriter out there who is tremendously talented, but record companies pick shitheads like Jessica Simpson (or worse, her utterly talentless sister) and Good Charlotte to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get more sirtime for. Why, I say... WHY?!?!?!?!?!

[Punkinhead]

I didn't really read it all but, it's no secret that radio has been pay for play on alot of fronts for a long time (we did a big study on it last semester in a class i was in). Clearchannel and the like haven't done much in helping reverse it

[bassist_25]

Which is why I say God Bless less mainstrain outlets such as CDBABY.com, Iuma.com, and XM/Sirruis radio. Technology is shifting the power back into the hands of those who truly deserve it: The artists. DIY is what I say.

[songsmith]

Headline:
Local Radio Personalities Caught up In Payola Scandal
(JMS)---Dateline July 27,2005

Local radio air personality Jim Price has admitted to playing the music of certain local and regional bands on his popular radio show, "The Backyard Rocker." Not in exchange for money, goods, or services, mind you... just because he's cool that way. When this reporter pressed him further (no, not THAT way), he freely ADMITTED that he did indeed "look at chicks" and "consume chicken wings and adult foamy beverages," many of which were purchased for him by the aforementioned chicks. It is also alleged that "The Professor, " as he is widely known, regularly "boogies down" and "digs on" local music, and that most local acts send him CD's of their music FOR FREE.
In a related story, local radio disc jockey, Kevin James, who works for a station that plays "the Rockinest Rock that ever Rocked a Rock's Rocks off," was spotted recently chowing down on quality baked goods outside a convenience store whose name starts with an "S" and ends with a "heetz." This reporter would like to know, WHO PAYS FOR THESE BEARCLAWS? WHO IS FUNDING THE KRISPY KREME'S?
What? Kevin pays for them himself from gig money? Oh.
Nevermind, then.---------------->JMS

[f.sciarrillo]

So this would explain how the suckiest songs always get to be number one hits ..

[Mistress_DB]

I got a friend who is a former Sony employee who knew about this 5 years ago. Let's just say she's got her ass covered big time if they start digging in past employees files.

[HurricaneBob]

Headline:
Local Radio Personalities Caught up In Payola Scandal
(JMS)---Dateline July 27,2005

Local radio air personality Jim Price has admitted to playing the music of certain local and regional bands on his popular radio show, "The Backyard Rocker." Not in exchange for money, goods, or services, mind you... just because he's cool that way. When this reporter pressed him further (no, not THAT way), he freely ADMITTED that he did indeed "look at chicks" and "consume chicken wings and adult foamy beverages," many of which were purchased for him by the aforementioned chicks. It is also alleged that "The Professor, " as he is widely known, regularly "boogies down" and "digs on" local music, and that most local acts send him CD's of their music FOR FREE.
In a related story, local radio disc jockey, Kevin James, who works for a station that plays "the Rockinest Rock that ever Rocked a Rock's Rocks off," was spotted recently chowing down on quality baked goods outside a convenience store whose name starts with an "S" and ends with a "heetz." This reporter would like to know, WHO PAYS FOR THESE BEARCLAWS? WHO IS FUNDING THE KRISPY KREME'S?
What? Kevin pays for them himself from gig money? Oh.
Nevermind, then.---------------->JMS

ROFL!

[f.sciarrillo]

I wonder if this can also justify the cost of cd's ?? I mean $20.00 for something that cost 25 cents to make? Sure there is production expense sand such. But come on. No wonder Music downloading is at an all time high.

[songsmith]

Don't even get me started. How much of that $20 does the artist make?
I point to the Dixie Chicks, who made SONY over $300 million, and were paid less than a million. That's less that a third of one percent of the gross. They sued, and easily won, it was so obvious. Joe Diffie has sold several million records and never broken even on a record, nor has Clint Black.
Apparently, however, record companies have money to give to large-market DJ's.-------->JMS

[ToonaRockGuy]

Headline:
Local Radio Personalities Caught up In Payola Scandal
(JMS)---Dateline July 27,2005

Local radio air personality Jim Price has admitted to playing the music of certain local and regional bands on his popular radio show, "The Backyard Rocker." Not in exchange for money, goods, or services, mind you... just because he's cool that way. When this reporter pressed him further (no, not THAT way), he freely ADMITTED that he did indeed "look at chicks" and "consume chicken wings and adult foamy beverages," many of which were purchased for him by the aforementioned chicks. It is also alleged that "The Professor, " as he is widely known, regularly "boogies down" and "digs on" local music, and that most local acts send him CD's of their music FOR FREE.
In a related story, local radio disc jockey, Kevin James, who works for a station that plays "the Rockinest Rock that ever Rocked a Rock's Rocks off," was spotted recently chowing down on quality baked goods outside a convenience store whose name starts with an "S" and ends with a "heetz." This reporter would like to know, WHO PAYS FOR THESE BEARCLAWS? WHO IS FUNDING THE KRISPY KREME'S?
What? Kevin pays for them himself from gig money? Oh.
Nevermind, then.---------------->JMS

POST OF THE DECADE.

[Jim Price]

Okay, okay, I plead guilty!

Yes, bands bearing wings, chicks, grub and "cake" (eh, Big Jim and Hurricane?) usually get booked back on the "Rocker!"

Seriously, though, payola hasn't ever really gone away, it just is a lot more subtle now. It gets discussed every year at the Millennium Music Conference; record companies may not pay outright for their artists getting spins, but big market stations that do spin their artists get top notch concert accommodations and other perks. Conversely, those who do not play the game get slower service from the label, or get blacklisted by that label outright. In a major market, that can be a kiss of death for some stations.

[Mistress_DB]

Yea from what she told me it was never money they gave but other items.

VIP treatment for shows in the area , Sony merchandise (cd players, etc), vacations.

She left the job a few years back due to downsizing in that particular sector. They offered her a transfer to another market but she was happy living where she is.