Behind the scene games of the music industry…

“Fighting pay-for-play” by Eric Boehlert

Ever wonder who decides what songs play on the radio during your drive home from work? Some may think that it is the DJs who plug-in their favorite songs, or the manager of the station who lists possible song options. Maybe it’s you, the audience, who calls the radio station requesting the new Taylor Swift song. Well it’s not the DJs or even their bosses, and it most definitely isn’t directly you; the people who decide what songs get airtime on radio stations are ‘indies’. Indies are the middlemen that companies employ; they are the ones holding the music industry in hostage.

How ‘indies’ work: The indies, who are usually men, form agreements with the general managers or the corporate owners of the radio station; they are hired for “promotional support”. However, what they actually do is stake a claim on a station and send out notices to record companies informing them that the companies will be charged (on average $1,000) every time that radio station adds a new song to the list that they will be playing; if the record companies do not pay the indies, then the songs that those record companies released will not be played on the stations.

This type of system is called Payola in the American music industry, but some may call it bribery. Payola is the illegal practice of payment or other incentives by record companies for the broadcasting of recordings on the radio. However, the way that both radio stations and indies make it legal and prevent from legal action against themselves is that they make a deal with the indies under “promotional support”. Also, under US law, a radio station can play a song in exchange for money if they disclose on the broadcast that it is sponsored airtime; but many record companies don’t like the stigma attached to having the audience know that they had to buy the station for playing a specific song.

The reason why the system of Payola and the work of indies is being argued about is the fact that many people think that radio stations are losing their original purpose; radio stations are not about music anymore, it’s all about profit like every other business today. The companies that have the big bucks, they are the ones whose music gets played. Another reason why the behind the scene ‘games’ of the music industry are being pushed to front-page news is because of the impending partnership of “industry heavyweight” Clear Channel Communications and the firm Tri State Promotions and Marketing, which is essentially an ‘indie’. CCC owns 1,200 radio stations and such a partnership would furthermore increase the power of the indie and thus the radio station that is receiving kickbacks from those indies. Such an agreement between CCC and Tri State would severely hurt the music industry/ the record companies, because Tri State could further increase the money they demand for the adding of a song on a station’s playlist.

(image from: http://creativebits.org/files/ipod_heart.jpg)