Music Industry Seeks Payola Inquiry

An Anonymous Coward writes "The big media story of the day seems to be that the RIAA, artists, and others in the industry are complaining that there are monopolies (such as Clear Channel) forming in the radio broadcast industry. The group is stating that the practice of "independent promotion" is really a new form of payola and that it is hitting the artists' bottom line directly." Another submitter writes in with another story on the subject and the industry's Joint Statement on Current Issues in Radio.

Comments

It's Not Corruption They're Worried About

[donnacha]

It's probably worth noting that the Music Industry slime-wads aren't actually worried about the corruption of the play lists that payola causes.

From the article:

Deregulation of the radio business and rampant practices that skirt 40-year-old anti-payola laws stifle competition, drive up music promotional costs and make it harder for new artists to gain attention, the artists and record labels said in a joint statement addressed to the federal regulators and Congress.

That's right, it's all about the mighty $.

Why buy into a game you already own?

Regular radio sucks anyways

[viking099]

That's why I usually only listen to NPR or CDs while I'm in my car. I can't stand the horribly limited playlists of the radio stations any more.
Not to mention the 20+ minutes of ads (not including the DJ's yapping away) in every hour of music.
And from what I've heard, Clear Channel can be a rough company to work for. The corp HQ selects the playlists and the DJ doesn't get to choose very many songs to play, unless they're working after 9:30 or 10:00 pm (and who's listening then anyways?)
When I'm at work, I listen to Wolf FM. They've got some ads, but the ratio of music to ads is very high.

Re:Regular radio sucks anyways

[Binky The Oracle]

I lost my last shred of faith in commercial radio when the 80s stations showed up. I really like 80s music, and you would think that with an entire decade to choose from, I wouldn't hear "Come on Eileen" and "Too Shy" every single day! But I do.

Oh, they do give us the all-request lunch hour. As long as your request is on their "approved" list. I actually had a dj tell me that they couldn't play a tune (that he liked a lot and even had in the library) because New York wouldn't let them.

There is no local radio anymore.

Re:Regular radio sucks anyways

[Binky The Oracle]

Perhaps I was involved in college radio at exactly the right time when so-called "alternative" was making larger inroads into the mainstream market, but I recall that during my time as a college radio DJ, approximately 75% of what was on our non-discretionary playlist ended up on commercial radio about a year later.

CMJ's purpose in life is to break new music and new artists, so it's no surprise that they're listing artists on smaller labels. What I'd be much more interested in is a breakdown of who owns/runs those labels and who they worked for previously. There are several independent promotion companies made up of previous A&R reps who work solely on promoting to the college market, and many of these have majors as clients because of back-connections.

I agree that there's a lot of good music out there on college radio, especially during the cyclical pop-retreat (you know, the wave of bubblegum we get every 4-5 years after the industry has milked the latest fad (e.g. grunge)). That's when college radio has a chance to shine because they're not just playing it safe and they have the freedom to play things that centrally programmed stations are too conservative to play.

And maybe you were fortunate enough to run one of the stations that for whatever reason didn't deal at all with the major reps when they came around throwing free cds, posters, and t-shirts around - good for you. But many college stations do, and the larger the transmitter, the more interested the majors are in renting some time on it. I'm not just pulling this out of my... er... hat - this is what I've learned from A&R reps at the majors and producers that I've worked with.

College radio has its place and its functions - one of its functions is test market for the majors.

Like Movie Theaters?

[--daz--]

It sounds like what might happen in the next few years is that companies like Clear Channel will do what they say they don't and only start playing the artists that they have on tour or promote.

You'll only hear certain artists on stations that are owned by the company that promotes their label or tour.

It'll kinda be like movie theaters where certain movies are only carried by Regal, or General Cinema, etc.

Remind me why big media companies are a good thing again?

The good old days of radio pre-digital ...

[KelsoLundeen]

This is off-topic (more or less), but I felt an urge to contribute my own personal experience in the pre-digital radio industry:

I used to work for an FM station, too -- KQ102 in Canton, Missouri -- and it was pretty interesting. It was from 1988-1989 -- and seemed to be the time right before "digital" took over everything FM.

Everything we played was on 45s -- vinyl -- and each 45 was rated according to its "tempo."

There were thousands of 45s at the station and about ten different tempo numbers. A #1 song was really, really fast -- and a number 10 was really, really slow.

Someone listened to all the music and -- based on the tempo -- placed them into the appropriate tempo bin.

Now, our mission was to look down at our playlist and play songs of varying tempo. We had markings like 1-5-8, or 2-6-10 to indicate the next three songs (fast, medium, slow) and breaks for each commercial or public service announcement.

The idea was that you were supposed to take a 45 from the front of the bin, play it, and then put it in the back of the bin. Of course, it didn't work like that, since our playlist was based on tempo and not song titles -- so all the shitty stuff was in the back of the bins never to be touched, and all the good stuff was in the front.

And we only had to hit our commercials plus or minus two minutes -- and give our top of the hour station announcements within 60 seconds plus or minus -- so we had a *lot* of leeway to play what we felt like, when we felt like it. It was fantastic, actually.

We broadcast out of a tiny white house that had been converted into a radio station. Transmitter in the living room, main booth in one bedroom, production studio in the other, and the sales office in the kitchen.

And we had a *huge* listener base. I used to do a lot of Friday and Saturday night shifts -- from 8pm to 2am -- and, man, I had groupies. I couldn't fucking believe it. People would hear your voice -- on account they'd be playing you at parties and in their car -- and they'd drop by in droves to see what you looked like. It was sick and bizarre, but it was loads of fun. We'd be sitting in the booth and staring out the window into the backyard and see all these people back there, waving and trying to get your attention.

It was really a bizarre thing but amazingly exciting. The fact that we were spinning 45s, playing more or less what we wanted (within reason) made for some amazing nights of music.

Sadly, KQ102 was put out of business by the rise of digital and the fact that they were one of the last stations in the area to still use vinyl. We actually had *turntables* -- as if we were a college radio station. It was a trip.

Great fun. Huge listener base. Gave away lots of prizes and cash.

But it was pretty much stomped out by corporate radio.