Sony Agrees to Stop Payola 450
dsginter writes "Sony BMG Music just reached agreement with New York Attorney General. Sony spokesman John McKay admitted that the practice was 'wrong and improper' but the company engaged in the activity anyway. They were fined $10 million and have agreed to obstain from the practice in the future. Is this the first step toward getting our airwaves back or is this just a slap on the wrist?"
FYI... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Of course it's a slap on the wrist! (Score:2, Informative)
Meh - American Radio is beyond hope (Score:5, Informative)
Payola, while unpleasant, is nothing to people who are carefully creating radio to only be sports, 80s hits and right wing shock jocks.
But, fortunately, there is satelite with some variety but above all else the internet.
Australian radio, in contrast to US radio, is vibrant, brilliant and is a good industrial subsidy for the Australian music industry (ever wonder where INXS, Midnight Oil and many others got their start?).
If you want to check it out over the net check out JJJ [abc.net.au], RRR [rrr.org.au], 3PBS [pbsfm.org.au] and enjoy some streaming quality alternative interesting radio for a change.
Re:Let me get this straight (Score:3, Informative)
"So if a regular Joe spreads the word about a new song and induces many thousands of random people listen to it for free it's theft, but if a radio DJ does the exact same thing he gets paid? Riiight."
The goal of record companies is, sadly, to make money. If I've already procured an MP3 of a song from Joe, I don't need to buy it -- I already have it. The record company (and the artist) make nothing. What, I'm going to voluntarily buy a copy of the album I've pirated, or go see the band in concert? Not bloody likely.
However, there have been countless times that I've heard a song on XM and subsequently hunted it down on iTunes. When I did this, both the record company and the artist made money -- in fact, the artist made a little bit when the song was played on the radio.
If publicity and exposure were the Alpha and the Omega and record companies and artists did not need to worry about making sales, then your logic would make perfect sense. There are plenty of unsigned bands who do freely use P2P services to distribute sample tracks. But if the intrinsic value of radio airplay is still boggling you, put yourself in the shoes of these bands and think about whether you'd also like some radio exposure in addition to all the kids P2Ping your stuff. Whether we like it or not, radio airplay is a big deal to up and coming artists.
Re:What's wrong with payola? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.history-of-rock.com/payola.htm [history-of-rock.com]
The laws are there to give independent labels, that aren't flush with cash, a chance vs. the large labels
Wow! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Of course it's a slap on the wrist! (Score:5, Informative)
Not being from an English-speaking country myself either, I thought I'd eye the article hoping they would be internally consistent and define the term. They were, and they did. I bet this could be used to try and teach some kind of lesson, but let's not go there.
Re:Meh - American Radio is beyond hope (Score:5, Informative)
Granted, I've never been to North America but I find it a little tricky to swallow that anyone could have music that makes our crappy radio sound "vibrant and brilliant". Sure, JJJ has integrity (as do all the ABC stations) but that's because it's federally funded explicitly to stop kids from becoming as much of idiots as they would have been if they turned on Nova instead. Australian radio sucks, and sucks hard.
Re:Of course it's a slap on the wrist! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Let me get this straight (Score:4, Informative)
Piracy hurts album sales, no doubt about it...though the effect is not as direct as the record companies would have you think. In the golden days of Napster, many people were buying CD's they had "sampled" online. Some, like myself and several of my friends, actually bought more music, because we had the opportunity to, from the comfort of our homes, listen to a huge variety of music that we might otherwise not have heard.
I am not, however, trying to argue that P2P doesn't hurt album sales as you said...it does.
But concert attendance? Not a chance. Most people who go see a concert already own the band's CD's. Downloading an album in MP3 is no subsitute for a live show...even downloading a FLAC of an entire concert set is not a substitute for being there. You'd have a hard time convincing most people that illegal downloading hurts ticket sales...and you'd have a relatively easy time showing that it might help ticket sales. People go see the bands because they heard, and liked, the albums...it doesn't matter if they heard it in legal or illegal form.
From what I understand, the order goes like this: radio airplay is just an advertisement for the album (to the record company), and the album is just an advertisement for the concert (to the band).
NY AG (Score:4, Informative)
My big question is this
From http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/
the poll showed state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer continuing to hold a double-digit lead over the three-term governor in a possible matchup for the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
Re:Indie promotion is a joke. (Score:3, Informative)
The answer you are looking for is - 89.3 The current [publicradio.org] by Minnesota Public radio. CD quality [publicradio.org] aacPlus no less. Yummy.
Sera
Re:Of course it's a slap on the wrist! (Score:5, Informative)
To keep it simple, what happened is that music labels began offering DJs money to play their songs. Music producers began targeting the AM stations ran high power at night since these "clear channel" (nothing to do with the company) stations could be heard for hundreds, if not thousands of miles at night.
In the end, the Feds had to step in and put a stop to this practice. Payola, as it was called, was ended around 1960, but the labels found ways around the law through the use of "Indys" and such. The practice has gotten worse since the FCC allowed companies to own many radio stations. Do some googling if you want to learn more -- it is fascinating.
Re:No sting -- Their wrists were already armored (Score:2, Informative)