West Coast Connection Forum
DUBCC - Tha Connection => Outbound Connection => Topic started by: Drudge on July 26, 2005, 06:43:53 AM
-
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
-
You didn't know labels pay music stations to play their music? ::)
-
Everyone suspected this but there wasnt any proof,anyways,this is pathetic.
-
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!
-
You didn't know labels pay music stations to play their music? ::)
-
thing is though.. how many people really know its illegal?
-
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.
-
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
-
thats why i hate pop music nowadays! and 50 and his g-unit bulsshit is definately pop music
Top 40 = pop music
-
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.
-
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?
-
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...
-
thing is though.. how many people really know its illegal?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
diddo.
-
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.
-
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"
-
50 cent needs to stop doing that..that just a lil bit song is gettin on my nerves
-
They've been doing this for years, they were doing this in the 50's as well, one way or the other. As a matter of fact, lots of radio play has been 'earned' through money or appearances or whatever. When a station plays a ton of an artist, because the artist has agreed to come do an interview there or whatever, isn't that the same thing?
Brian Wilson in the 60's used to personally drive with an entourage to a station in L.A., and hand deliver his latest single to the d.j. in the middle of the night. They'd play the hell out of it after that, since he came and visited.
To be honest, I don't even know why it's illegal, I guess it runs into some sort of FCC violation because it's public airwaves, and therefore ultimately public property. If you broadcast something into public property, I guess they could make it illegal for you to dissemate material you've been paid to send out or something. I dunno. Seems like splitting hairs to me.
If the radio station wants to play whatever music they want, for whatever reason, I don't see the problem. If you don't like what they're playing, change the channel. I know I don't sit through no shitty J. Lo song or Good Charlotte song if it's on the radio, no matter how many times they wanna play it.
Saying you want it to go back to the days when good music got played because it was good is a little naieve. Good music that was published by the right company and distributed by the right distributer, and marketed by the right marketing, and sent to the right d.j.'s maybe got played. It's a business, always has been, always will be.
-
You are correct Trauma, but DJs that are fans of the music they play are far better than DJs that are paid to play certain tracks. My dad always told me about DJs that actually ran out to their car to grab a record to play, not even playing a song just dead air, just because it was that good. I wish I could hear stations like that these days.
The thing is, the music the radio stations are playing isn't the music they like, it's the music they are paid to play. There is this DJ named Tone E. Fly here, and at first he was on the pop channel, then all of a sudden he either got fired or quit, apparently got gangsta, and now he's back on radio but he's on the rap station now. Those are the types of DJs that go home listen to a completely different genre. They don't even care what is good, all they care about is how much bigger their paycheck can get.
And as much as the radio is for the fans, it's also a promotional tool for the artist. If the artist does an interview at a certain station, it's only right to play their song a few more times not just to promote the record, but to let the listeners know who the artist is. But all in all, I'm glad there is finally proof the pay offs were happening. I knew it was illegal, I just knew it was a matter of time.
-
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!
We need talents..not hoaxs
-
You are correct Trauma, but DJs that are fans of the music they play are far better than DJs that are paid to play certain tracks. My dad always told me about DJs that actually ran out to their car to grab a record to play, not even playing a song just dead air, just because it was that good. I wish I could hear stations like that these days.
The thing is, the music the radio stations are playing isn't the music they like, it's the music they are paid to play. There is this DJ named Tone E. Fly here, and at first he was on the pop channel, then all of a sudden he either got fired or quit, apparently got gangsta, and now he's back on radio but he's on the rap station now. Those are the types of DJs that go home listen to a completely different genre. They don't even care what is good, all they care about is how much bigger their paycheck can get.
And as much as the radio is for the fans, it's also a promotional tool for the artist. If the artist does an interview at a certain station, it's only right to play their song a few more times not just to promote the record, but to let the listeners know who the artist is. But all in all, I'm glad there is finally proof the pay offs were happening. I knew it was illegal, I just knew it was a matter of time.
All you just did, was tell me that you like DJ's who play good music, better than you like DJ's who get paid to play music. I agree. That doesn't make it illegal, though, and I don't think it should be illegal.
-
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.
Agree 100 % he plays shit that is dope he don't care about Who is it
thats why I listen to K-Day instead of Power 106 they only play 50,Reaggeton,just pop music
sometimes they will do some dope stuff but K-Day >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Power 106 & 100.3 The Beat
-
All you just did, was tell me that you like DJ's who play good music, better than you like DJ's who get paid to play music. I agree. That doesn't make it illegal, though, and I don't think it should be illegal.
What I was saying was I don't mind if the DJ monopolizes the radio waves with records they like just as long as they don't see any monitary incentive from it. I think we are both trying to get at that point, but it doesn't matter, I'm right so go to hell. ;D