Sony Music - First Class Cheaters!

I'm sure that most of you who listen to the radio stations wondered many times why those crap songs are played again and again? And probably you've suspected that the reason behind this is not the tunes' coolness and the artists' talent -- 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.

New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office has recently made an investigation. Unveiled memos from Sony's Columbia and Epic Records senior vice presidents of promotions circa 2002-2003 spell out who to pay and what to pay them in order to get the company's records on the air.

It turned out that a huge amount of spins (plays of the record) is attained by payola (in form of plasma TVs, laptop computers, PlayStation 2 consoles, expensive trips and limousines). Just a few examples -- here is one of the internal memos from Sony Music: "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..."

And here is another one, from a Sony internal memo on 09/08, 2004: "Two weeks ago it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE."

From now on -- don't be surprised why so many talented artists recieve so little airplay.

Read Roger Friedman's article about the whole thing at FOXNews.com website.

Comments

[bassplr19]

Shit I could have told anyone this, in fact I have. Good Charlette sucks ass!

[emhaslam]

yeh, id have 2 agree wiv u there

[lwnovember]

17K to have good charlotte played? yea sounds about right

[Croat]

music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

[theonlybman]

We all knew this, but I'm glad this is finally under investigation

[Sasha Bond]

I already knew that. How do you think 50 Cent and Fabolous songs get played so much. Franz Ferdinand, thats hilarious. I expected them to say Jimmy Eat World singles were receiving their airplay because of payola, I know for a fact thats true. Oh and Weezer as well.

[Mr_Die_Easy]

Wow it is worse than I believe it to be.... Shame on them for force feeding people crap....

[Bam_HIM_Bassist]

its all bullshit, they need to get talent on the radio, not manufactured shit! i used to like Greem Day, but then they were played and played and played and u just think, god im so sick of these guys! the companies think, the more our bands are played, the more people will like them... damn are they praying to the wrong god!

[rock_star77]

You people are so naive. This can't possibly be considered a conspiracy or anything close to one. That's what record companies do to get their artists on the air. It's not illegal, it's like paying for advertising space in the newspaper. The world revolves around money, get used to it.

[southern_stylin]

It's not illegal, but what the hell difference does that make?

[Sasha Bond]

southern_stylin:
It's not illegal, but what the hell difference does that make?

--Its surely not illegal, and anybody with sense of the music industry already knew about payola.

[Scourge441]

Shame on them for force feeding people crap....

Amen. Why should we be forced to listen to crappy bands just so some guy can get some extra pocket cash?

[Erc]

ooh finally some good news from UG...rock on ^_^

[panther62]

dont forget that some bands do it on their own, like how AFI and Modest Mouse were at it forever before getting any radio play.

[Powerhouse]

I wouldn't know, I hardly ever turn my radio on.

[Skadogg]

I live in NY. Elliot Spitzer doesn't take shit from anyone. He's always putting on the clampdown (sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not).

Yeah, I don't listen to much radio. I like to control what I'm listening to. CDs and iPod make me a better DJ than any ass jockey on the radio.

[ANGERisaGIFT]

Scourge441:
Shame on them for force feeding people crap....

Uh... people don't usually force me to listen to the radio. Only once in my life has a Sony executive busted out of my closet and made me listen to Simple Plan's new smash hit.

[guitar21@WE]

Croat:
music thats not at least 20 years old sucks
\
What about Metallica assf u Ck? I'm not even a metal fan, and i love metallica. YOu can't tell me that the riffs and music that metallica makes, is not amazing, i htink it degraded a little bit iwth St. Anger, but they still rock in my book.

[fadetoblack89]

Sounds Right Because Good Charlotte And Franz Ferdinand or whatever their name is. They BOTH FUCKIBG SUCK. They Get No Respected From me

[im not mental]

now that wasn't very nice of them! luckily i listen to student-run radio who play dillenger escape plan, mars volta, gizmachi, strung out, and NOT GOOD CHARLOTTE OR SIMPLE PLAN!

[ctb]

I'm thinking that this only applies to stations like Capital FM ?

[fadetoblack89]

Croat: Music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

Thats Fucking ignorant, the date of time a band played doesn't change the fact that that band has talent! Metallica,Pink FLoyd, the doors, etc, all had talent, great musicians

[PumpkinsPunk]

Thats why I listen to 92.5 wear they dont do that, classic rock and roll none played over and over, All your classic needs on 92.5, come today!

[urthunderstruck]

makes a lot of sense, and ive had my suspicions for a while...

[Sgt. Pepper19]

Thats not new though. Payola was around in the 50's

[InSaynePig]

ja radio blows for sure, i only listen to it cause my piece of shit car has no cd player. while i'm on the subject, bring back ksjo and damn the bastards who killed it. any of you bay area people with me on this???

[FamousDeathTack]

I'd pay $17k for Good Charlotte to give up music.

[MATTTHEMOP]

i would have guessed this, really.

[LedZeppelin]

Come on, we already knew this. It's the same reason any form of entertainment is littered with ads; companies pay big bucks to get airplay and promotion for their products. Sony music has some good bands, it's just that if you looked at the overall figures I'm sure the wealthier labels' artists would have way more airplay than, say, independent labels/artists.

[GUMY]

I assumed as much, but didnt really know for sure. Well now I know, good times

[Izzy_Stradlin]

Damn Corruption the people want to hear good music

[Izzy_Stradlin]

Might i suggest G n R

[gynther flynt]

Croat:
music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

I disagree. These days even more and more great music is made for all ears to enjoy, it's just that the stock and crappy pop music that loops on everywhere you go waters it down and people think that this generation has nothing more to give than britney spears or good charlotte (which both suck ass), but that ain't the case, it's just hard to find good music amongst all the crap.
Yes, music that was made earlier was great because the music industry wasn't corrupted by money.

[harm0n20]

Croat:
music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

so in 20 years when britney spears and simple plan are at least 20 years old they'll be good all of a sudden? i think not.

[Kornbizkit5190]

damn how dirty

[Mr. Kashmir]

and sadly, this won't be reported on any major news sites or sources because... those are corrupt too

[goku77]

AHHH..!!!FUCKFUCKFUCK GOOD CHARLOTTE!!!!

[Mr. Kashmir]

OH SNAP, that was on FOX NEWS.COM?!?!?!

oopsy, well maybe not any other major sites...

[Burpbelly]

So does this mean that sony pay to get their shite bands on air when they do have a few bands that are good. If they didn't just sign anyone that could hold a tune (some of them still can't do that) this wouldn't happen. But like its been said its not illegal, however it is dirty, and corrupt and the major bosses who pay for this should be ashamed

[lessthanjeff420]

PAYING stations to play their music is payola and payola is illegal, but giving them playstations, computers, etc is not. so their not doing anything illegal, its just something LARGE record companies tend to do to get what they want on the radio.

O, and since when did fox news care about good unknown artists anyways, hahaha.

[lessthanjeff420]

Paying $4000 for Franz Ferdinand to get on a station is illegal though, get used to it, payola been going on for decades and we (people on UG) cant do s**t about it. so change the station or dont listen at all.

[Einzigerfan03]

Well i just want people to get it straight this is only going on with sony related artists. I mean im in no way supporting 50 cent (believe i wish one of the bullets that hit him would've shut him forever.)but i think people are taking it out of hand seeing as though Jimmy Eat World and 50 cent are not even sony artists. But its is ***ed up what happened which makes one wonder how is franz fedinad going to do on there next album...its funny sony has good music but they force radio to play the bands case in point push good charlotte but dont push incubus pay to play good charlotte but dont even play lostprophets...sigh i really do wonder what effect this is going to have on these artist as far as radio and commericalism goes.

[brio541]

haha wow....so all my thoughts on why shitty music is played and played and overplayed is actually true??? dammmnnn..

[A Frozen Flame]

Man, this is such CRAP! There are so many great bands out there today that will never have a chance to become as big as they should be just because of this crap. Every five mins. another "pretty boy" band comes out and does moderatly well on the charts even though they suck. While there are bands like The Mars Volta, which I have heard on TV twice, and never on the radio. But deserve to be played every chance they get. They are 1000..x better than GC and FF put together. All well, at least I have their cds so everytime another "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" comes on, I can listen to real music.

[Mr. Kashmir]

2 words - satellite radio

[SixStrings]

i tried to tell this girl rian about this and she said, "no thats just what the people like"...im always right.

[tHeAxEmAn]

bring back ksjo and damn the bastards who killed it. any of you bay area people with me on this???

hell yes

[BlindingStrings]

I cant bleive modest mouse would do soehtin like that. Did they really pay people oh well , it how the world goes. This is quite obvious though

[Night_Lights]

fadetoblack89:
Croat: Music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

Thats Fucking ignorant, the date of time a band played doesn't change the fact that that band has talent! Metallica,Pink FLoyd, the doors, etc, all had talent, great musicians

all those bands are at least 20 years old, fool.


but i disagree with the 20 year old comment.



who listens to radio anyway?

[Skin_2_Liquid]

Payola isnt against the law, though most DJs sign exclusive contracts that barr any financial gained from labels. F*ck'em.

[Evil Kid 93]

So it's all Sony's fault that crappy music gets popular...***, now I feel guilty for owning a PS2...

[No1Famous]

Umm guys it actually is illegal. Sony BMG got fined $10 million for it.

A law got passed in the 80's I think cos it was really getting out of hand. Pink Floyd at the time were selling thousands of not millions of albums but weren't getting any airtime. Then they decided to pay the radio stations to play their music and straight away Pink Floyd was getting overkill on the airwaves. Shortly after that it was outlawed.
I'm not 100% that's exactly how the story goes but it's all I can remember from some show i saw.

[Kartman]

Do you think they also pay MTV?

[Punklicated Kid]

no wonder kids listen 2 that craap..its on 24/7

[SlipDolls1Joey]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!

[lost_it_again]

radio sucks, mtv sucks, record companies suck and pop music sucks. This is just the sort of thing that people in the pop industry would do. complete disgusting

[roo6339]

Croat:
music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

what a terribly ignorant comment...

[dionysus85]

theyd have to ppay me 17k to listen to good charlotte

but yeah, this is pretty obvious news, theyv been doing this FOREVER

[Abyssal]

Spread the news to all the Preps, and Posers. And tell them that all their "shit" music, really does suck. Because their companies got to pay loads of money, just to get the music on the radio.

Rebel.

[buckethead101]

yeah pop music sucks man

[weedmasta76]

old news. record labels have been doing this for quite some time.

[Liamy]

Hmm well I had no idea this was happening. Somehow I'm not suprised though.

[jacobnevins600]

music thats not at least 20 years old sucks

what the hell is wrong with you. Have you even heard of Zeppelin, the Who or Hendrix. And also who the hell listens to the f-ing soft rock shit anyway. put on Q-107 you posers.

[guitar_freak523]

not that shocking i knew something was going on

[MetallicAhead]

^er, dude all of those bands are over 20 years old.

[Xeus]

you'd still do 'em though

[im not mental]

bring back ksjo and damn the bastards who killed it. any of you bay area people with me on this???

definietly! ksjo rocked!

[DEVILMAN 2012]

Completely Unsurprised By This Fact

[DEVILMAN 2012]

This is Why I Will Always Stay Away From Record Labals
Its Just Complete Garbage On The Radio These Days
The Only Good Stuff On The Radio is The Old Stuff

[GnRrelease_it]

FamousDeathTack:
I'd pay $17k for Good Charlotte to give up music.


hahahaha
now that's a cause i would give to.

[deathscyth76]

I like you people...youve got a good sense of music...
Kill modern rock...please...before it kills me...

[WiseSoun]

Payola is illegal check the link - started in the 50's
http://www.lincolnu.edu/~nordstro/jou335/payola.htm

[painedexpress]

The only thing is it's Fox saying this.
It's been known for a while that in order to get airplay you have to pay. Of course it did become illegal but what you don't know won't hurt you, unless you really do listen to the radio still. Another reason that you won't hear much metal on the radio.