Indie record labels seeing gold

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after a particular song had been played at least 10 times.

E-mails from Sony BMG and its subsidiary labels made it clear that executives were aware of the ongoing practices.

"Two weeks ago, it cost us over $4,000 to get Franz (Ferdinand) on WKSE," reads one e-mail released by Spitzer's office, talking about wooing a radio station program director named Dave Universal. "This is what the four trips to Miami and hotel cost."

Some of the practices outlined in the e-mails have already been curtailed in part by stations. Radio giants Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting have cut ties to independent promoters," a class of middlemen who are often accused of funneling payments between labels and radio stations.

Universal, the Buffalo radio executive cited in one of the Sony e-mails, was dismissed earlier this year for improperly receiving travel packages from label executives, according to a report in The New York Times.

Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein of the Federal Communications Commission called for federal scrutiny of the labels' practices.

"We've seen a lot of smoke around payola for a while, but now we know it's coming from a real fire," Adelstein said in a statement. "It's time to dump a bucket of cold water on it...We need an immediate investigation to determine whether these practices violate federal payola laws."

[prestonwily]

Sounds like a good thing

I think it's great thing for the music industry that small independents will finally be able to compete. Hopefully we will see a wave of new talent.

[CharlesJo.com]

Agreed

There are good bands everywhere... like The Shawn Evans Band in Silicon Valley:

http://www.shawnevans.com/

[skeptik]

Industry's lost record sales

Payola. Now we have legally admissable evidence that the RIAA's claim of lost revenue in recent years is not due to P2P, but in fact due to the loss of payola generate exposure for their music. I guess we should let all those gradeschoolers out of jail now and lock up some executives. Of course I'm sure they would argue that they should not be held responsible, that everyone was doing it and they weren't really hurting anyone. ;)

[Len Bullard]

Where The Gigs Are

As the pie thins, it will be entertaining to see what the independents begin to do to get more of it. Will they replicate the tactics of the big guys or will they innovate on means to get ears next to their music?

The smart ones will create artists alliances for multimedia just emerging. Musicians know that gigs are presence and presence is the key to getting fans. The road is expensive and hard, so online gigs count for more. The chat rooms are becoming the nightclubs of the web. Some chat rooms have their own streaming audio radio stations. Chat room members gather at night for online parties while their personal DJ streams music fit to the party and the room. Savvy musicians are teaming with the chat room owners to provide 'fit' music; that is, made to order for the room.

Cheap and global, no air fatigue, no bus butt, no bad food, dress is optional. Make the song; put the mp3 where the DJ can get it to prep it; go to the chat room and sit with the crowd.

Is this lucrative? No. Is it fun? You bet. Will it lead to more business? Stay tuned.

[stephenmeyer]

THE SONY/BMG SETTLEMENT WILL NOT HELP INDEPENDENT LABELS

One of the facts that the media is negating in the rush to print their "Payola" stories, is that many good, hard-working and professional independent promotion people, who have for years played an integral part in breaking new artists, will now be shut out by more radio stations and by more labels.

If independent levels think this means they now have a "more level" playing field, they are delusional. Who will be the voice for them at radio if independent promotion people are diminished in importance? Does anyone really believe that radio is now going to spend a lot of time sorting through the hundreds of music choices they receive weekly before choosing the music they put on the air? It's just not going to happen.

The only thing the SONY/BMG settlement means (and the other major labels will likely settles as well since they all used the same practices)is that major labels will now find new ways to channel money into the marketplace to influence decision makers at radio. And independent labels should do the same...but to think that this setllement will create a new dawn of better music at radio is simply naive.

Steve Meyer
President/CEO - Smart Marketing
Publisher - DISC&DAT - A New Media Newsletter
Editor, Digital Technology: www.allaccess.com
Las Vegas, NV
E-mail: [e-mail]

[Len Bullard]

They Will Adapt New Means

Unless they are profoundly stupid, they will adapt new means. The marketing world now has means to count subscriber interest that did not exist in the days when the independent promoter evolved. Heck, my Windoze player automatically rates plays (it has very bizarre and sometime mediocre tastes, but that's true of independent promoters too) and if I were to let those aggregate, a good rating for what is being listened to emerges.

Tools, old man. Better tools, and cheaper than payola. It might be time to pull your head out of your wallet and look around because that is you market evaporating.

How smart the independents are at finding the online gigs, online promotions, routes to the iPod space, routes to the Sirius space, that will make a difference. This is the day of the geek and you need to figure out where and if you fit in.

Will the bribing still go on? Oh yeah. Always. It simply won't have Foghorn Leghorn, the hapless underpaid over-partied program director by the neck.

[Len Bullard]

Start Here

http://webjay.org/

Not a ranking service, as far as I can tell, but a means to distribute selections by listeners, and that's a good start.

[froppo]

Agreed

I think I'm going to have to agree with you on this one. Reluctantly. I don't think that smothering independent promoters, the way they have, is going to change anything. Also, the radio stations relied on that money for their promotional contests to increase listeners. The radio stations aren't going to give up that money without finding some other way to obtain it. Finally, if the major labels were completely shut off from using indie promoters and their was no way they could "payola" their way into the radio stations, I think that the stations would simply play the same music for the next 20 years rather than go through thousands of records to find that one golden artist. Most stations are run on the corporate level and what was cool to a corporate business man 20 years ago is cool to a corporate business man today.

-Froppo
Sling Slang Records
Indie Record Label

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