It should be interesting the spin the industry puts on this stuff once all the facts are exposed. I know for a fact that clearchannel and infinity are really going to be damaged in all this. Who are they going to offer up in sacrifice in effigy for their sins?

I know for FACT that both clear channel and infinity program directors participate in conference calls with music industry "indies" who make "suggestions" on what music to play, in exchange for this the record industry funnels cash through the indies into the coffers of clear channel and infinity. These funds go to the companies bottom line profits.

Why do you think no matter what station you tune into, the songlists are eerily similar, and very restrictive in what songs get played. Its all down to how much they get to spin the records or discs.







Why Spitzer is cleaning up radio’s dirty secret


February 19, 2006

Music lovers all have that moment - that instant when they hear a song and wonder, "How on Earth did he get a record deal?"

Yeah, taste is subjective. And yes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. But there are some acts on major labels, some songs that become radio hits, that are so bad that only one cliche explains their existence: Money talks.

PC Richard & Sons
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer figured this out, announcing earlier this month that he has subpoenaed several radio conglomerates in his ongoing investigation of record companies paying radio stations to play their songs.

"Probably many of the songs that were beneficiaries of the payola scheme would have succeeded without it," Spitzer told The Associated Press. "But certainly payola became part of the promotional structure and was integral to the game to get songs to the top. Major artists, major songs were sent up the charts through improper payments to buy spins on the air that translated into sales."

The Federal Communications Commission has picked up on Spitzer's findings and announced that it is investigating hundreds of radio stations to see if they have broken the law.

So why is this a big deal? What makes pay-to-play on radio different from advertising? Well, the airwaves belong to the people, so radio stations have to play by different rules and have to act in the public interest. And, as Spitzer said in his news conference, payola hurts listeners, because under that system, money, not talent, affects what music they hear and which bands become popular.

This investigation becomes even more important in light of a new study from Columbia University, where sociology professor Duncan J. Watts and researchers Matthew J. Salganik and Peter Sheridan Dodds found listeners are heavily influenced by other people when they decide whether they like a song.

According to their research, published in Science magazine earlier this month, when people think a lot of their peers like a certain song, they become more likely to like it, regardless of how good the song actually is.

The study was conducted with 14,341 listeners divided into two groups, each given 48 songs. The "independent" group got the songs and no other information. The "social influence" group, which was divided into eight smaller groups, received the songs and information about how often each had been downloaded.

Researchers found that listeners gravitated to the most-downloaded songs. How often a song was said to be downloaded would affect how many times other people downloaded it, leading a song to finish at the top of the pack or near the bottom, depending on perceived popularity.

"In general, the 'best' songs never do very badly and the 'worst' songs never do extremely well, but almost any other result is possible," the study found.

In other words, an average song could be a hit or a bomb, depending on how effective the marketing campaign is and how convincing an argument the record company makes about how much other people like a song.

That's where the payola comes in. If you hear a song 30 or 40 times a week on your favorite station, you can't help but think somebody wanted to hear it - the program director, the DJ, other listeners, somebody with no profit motive. As the researchers found, that subconsciously makes you want to hear it.

What Spitzer has learned, though, is that in some cases, nobody liked that song you heard 30 times a week. It got played because someone at a record company did someone at the radio station a favor - gave them a laptop or a gift card to an electronics store. Wouldn't it make more sense for record companies to save that money and pour it into making better songs?

Contact Glenn Gamboa at 631-843-3434 or glenn.gamboa@newsday.com.