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Shocked, Shocked at Payola

Posted by jamie on from the chess-piece-face's-patience-wearing-thin dept.

"It costs a record company about $250,000 just to launch a single on rock radio today. That doesn't guarantee success; it just gives the single access to the airwaves. If the song catches on and eventually crosses over to the mainstream Top-40 format, indie costs balloon to more than $1 million per song." Salon.com has a pair of articles on payola today: one on the widening scandal and one specifically on a curious Clear Channel case. For context, here's our latest payola story, or if you want the background on why the labels hate the promoters but can't shake the habit, my writeup from a year ago. (If you want some beach reading on this topic, go check out "Hit Men.")

4 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Guide TO Salon Clear Channel Stories by wiredog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the index, of course.

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  2. Frustrating by sulli · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They pay Clear Channel, yet shut down SomaFM for not paying more than they already do.

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    sulli
    RTFJ.
  3. Satellite radio by EyesWideOpen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not sure exactly how the whole satellite radio thing works but don't they have their own radio stations for satellite radio (i.e., Clear Channel-free) with their own disc jockey's and whatnot? If so, I wonder how the payola involved in satellite radio compares with that of FM radio.

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  4. There's a solution .... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A fight between the 800 pound gorillas and the public suffers.

    You could launch a record and get it played on the radio for cheaper but it won't be on Clear Channel. Clear Channel does all kinds of evil stuff besides that, like piping in remote DJs and making you think they are local.

    This sort of battle was inevitable when the FCC lifted regulations on radio ownership.

    The solution for you, the public might be to try to patronize stations that are not conglomerate owned.

    I DO listen to one radio station that is both terrestrial and internet streaming: 97X out of Oxford Ohio. Here's some of the NEW stuff I'm enjoying..
    Elvis Costello
    Hives
    Cornershop
    Idelwild
    Girls Against Boys
    The complete playlist is here

    Great music that is bucking the current cock-rock trend of Linkin Park, System of a Down, Korn, etc. being offered by local Washington DC suck ass radio in the form of WHFS and it's "Most Played" list. (It's not Clear Channel, It's CBS, just as bad)

    Then there's Radio Paradise.

    Any /. geek would love this station merely for the technical expertise that Bill Goldsmith pulled off when he set this up.

    Just boycott Clear Channel. Turn it off.....

    You needn't follow the flock is you refuse to be part of it.