Jennifer Lopez and other groups busted for paying stations to play music

[Drudge]

Damn!! Now I know why lopez with her no singing ass gets airplay.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163537,00.html



Payola Shocker: J-Lo Hits, Others Were 'Bought' by Sony

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 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 memo notes that the company actually lost spins — or plays of the record — even though they laid out money for them.

See above: The internal memos from Sony Music, revealed today in the New York state attorney general'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 radio stations in the Top 23 markets will receive $1000, 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 horn 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 today: Sony Music — now known as Sony/BMG — has to pony up a $10 million settlement with New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. 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 players being sent to DJs and radio programmers in exchange for getting records on the air. And not just electronic gifts went to these people either. According to the papers released today, 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 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 Simpson, for whom Sony laid on big bucks in the last couple of years to turn her into something she's clearly not: a star.

And 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 naοve!)

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 …

[mauzip]

You didn't know labels pay music stations to play their music?

[UKnowWhatItIs: welcome to my traps....game over]

Everyone suspected this but there wasnt any proof,anyways,this is pathetic.

[Don Seer]

hopefully they can bring back the days where talent sets the plays, not money
and they might actually get DJs who stop acting like superstars and
start acting like the fan's they're supposed to be...

if you saw these people getting all this shit.. i'm sure you'd want in too!

[white Boy]

You didn't know labels pay music stations to play their music?

[Don Seer]

thing is though.. how many people really know its illegal?

[Drudge]

You didn't know labels pay music stations to play their music?

Actually, I'm  not that surprised that 'payola' still exists. But, I did wonder if people really like lopez, simpson, britney, etc... Because, basically the three have no talent and they get major airplay.

[DPG4Life]

im very certain that this is the way how "50's pimpin the music industry" too

his shit is wack, and ppl wont realize that its actually LOW QUALITY music, but if its in the magazines, on the radio... mothafuckas gotta have it! buy it! and requesting it in the club, b/c its all they know: Pop music!

thats why i hate pop music nowadays! and 50 and his g-unit bulsshit is definately pop music

[mauzip]

thats why i hate pop music nowadays! and 50 and his g-unit bulsshit is definately pop music

Top 40 = pop music

[CRAFTY]

thing is though.. how many people really know its illegal?

You hit the nail on the head, because I have to admit: I didn't know it was illegal. I was aware that it happened, but I just thought it wasn't fair towards the underground labels who can't afford to spend their money on things like these. I figured since nobody is stopping these people from paying the radio stations, it must be legal then...I'm glad to hear that it's not though. But how come they only take notice of this NOW when we already knew it for YEARS

From the few radio rips I've heard, I think that Julio G must be one of the best radio DJ's. I listened to that Kam radio rip from a few days ago on K-DAY with Julio G and like you said Seer, he acts like a fan, which is good to me.

[Don Seer]

its all fucked up.. you see... there is a large worldwide advertising company called ClearChannel which also happens to run a lot of US radio stations... even the advertising billboards i pass here on the way to work have "by ClearChannel" under the adverts..


http://www.clearchannel.com/  > their radio station shit "clear channel communications"
http://www.clearchanneloutdoor.com/ > their billboard advertising..  "clear channel outdoor"


Conflict of interest?

[CRAFTY]

Yeah, ClearChannel is responsible for a lot of bullshit. The concerts I go to are relatively cheap (let's say around € 22), but when ClearChannel is the promoter/sponsor of it, the price will definitely be a lot higher than that.

The fucked up thing about this is that a company with that much power & status will most likely never go bankrupt. The market they're controlling is sort of a monopoly. Because trying to compete with them is basically suicide for an up-and-coming company I think...

[Kal EL]

thing is though.. how many people really know its illegal?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
diddo.

[Kal EL]

its all fucked up.. you see... there is a large worldwide advertising company called ClearChannel which also happens to run a lot of US radio stations... even the advertising billboards i pass here on the way to work have "by ClearChannel" under the adverts..


http://www.clearchannel.com/  > their radio station shit "clear channel communications"
http://www.clearchanneloutdoor.com/ > their billboard advertising..  "clear channel outdoor"


Conflict of interest?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
drop some more knowledge Seer. but my question is when do we go back to the underground. all of my favs back in the day didn't get air play and didn't care about it.

[Stone Cold is Bout It, Bout It]

I did wonder if people really like lopez, simpson, britney, etc... Because, basically the three have no talent and they get major airplay.

that's the only way those untalented bitches could get anny air play "if you pay the radio statios"