Haha fucking radio conglomerates being investigated big time for payola....

[Hardrock69]

Albany, N.Y.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said yesterday he has subpoenaed nine of the nation's largest radio conglomerates in his "payola" invertigation of major artists and songs he claims got airtime because of payoffs by recording companies.

"A lot of the major songs have been implicated in this and it showed how pervasive the payola infrastructuire had become," Spitzer told The Associated Press. "Major artists, major songs were sent up through the charts through improper payments to buy spins on the air that translated into sales."

The companies that have recieved subpoenas control thousands of stations nationwide, including Clear Channel Communiucations, Inc., Infinity, which now oeprates CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting Corp., Cox Radio, Inc., Cumulus Broadcasting Inc., Pamal Broadcasting Ltd., Entercom Communications Corp., Emmis Communications Corp., and ABC Inc.


This was in my local newspaper this morning.

[Coyote]

Could this be daylight at the end of the tunnel?

[Mr. Vengeance]

Doesn't surprise me. And it will never go away.

[monkeythe]

All that's going to happen is that they are either going to lose a class action suit which will make a few lawyers really rich or they will have to pay some fines. Either way, the costs will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher CD prices.

[Douglas T.]

In their beginning Limp Bizkit bought advertising time time and had their songs played in the spots they paid as commercial! One way around the PAYOLA tag.

[Hardrock69]

Originally posted by monkeythe
All that's going to happen is that they are either going to lose a class action suit which will make a few lawyers really rich or they will have to pay some fines. Either way, the costs will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher CD prices.

Nope.

They cannot afford to alienate their customers.

I mean look...I can go buy a NEW 2 disc DVD set for 15 bucks, with 10 hours of VISUAL as well as audio content.

The record labels are trying to pitch audio only cds that have 72 minutes of audio or less, for about the same price.

As it is, more people are going towards singles these days.

I read an article on the paper this morning comparing this to the heyday of the 50s and 60s, but instead of 45 rpm records, people are buying singles as digital downloads.


So even though the singles format was considered dead as a revenue source just a few years ago, now more singles are downloaded than are sold in physical form.

[monkeythe]

The record industry has been doing everything possible over the past few years to alienate their customers:
- Lost class action Price Fixing Scandal
- Infest people's computers with viruses

As far as the prices go, since DVD's have been out you can buy a movie for less than the soundtrack.

[Terry]

Yeah...kinda hard to care about it on a personal level, since I don't really care for what's being played on the radio these days. Plus, with the quality of what is being put out there, it only makes sense on some level that these artists and companies SHOULD pay money for this shit to get played on the radio.

Bottom line is nobody is forcing consumers to purchase the music they hear being played on the radio, regardless of how much spin time it's getting.

[rustoffa]

Flip on one of the "nu rock", or "alternative" stations. This is the funniest shit ever. The motherfuckers' are force feeding payola'd hipness! Shit, popular music has always been political/welcome to the machine shit....

Who'd a thunk some dude in Blink 182 would be asked, "which one's pink?"

Grow some corn rows, get a nerd haircut.....rinse, repeat.

[Hardrock69]

It is funny to see the pre-packaged pop band kits these Major Labels must go buy at Wal-Mart or something.

There is the "pink teen dance-pop sensation" package with cross-promotion with Walt Disney....

Then there is the rap-metal package. Comes complete with instructions in current "street" lingo, a rhyming dictionary, and a one-year's supply of fake gold jewry and sidewayz ballcaps.

Right now the labels are struggling with the big question: "What new trend can we instigate?"

All they can do is try out diferent trends, and wait until the right trend is marketed to the right sheep...er..I mean.."consumer demographic" at the right time.

It can happen...look at the Backstreet Boys and that bullshit....

There is also a Dark or Alterna-Metal package you can buy. Comes complete with instructions on how to pretend to be angry, how to scream horribly without destroying your voice, and a marketing/design budget for a cool new name like "Dark November" or "Brooding Evil", complete with new font, new logo, cool t-shirt and CD cover designs....etc., etc. and an endorsement from Revlon for their new line of "Goth" eyeliner...

Also buy this new complementary bonus package that will allow you to be the opening act on a 3-act bill for 2 Nine Inch Nails concerts.



Oh and you have to find someone to blow the promoter, and maybe the A & R guy at the label as well....

[Nitro Express]

Recorded music sales are way down, concert attendance is way down, movie attendance is way down.

What are the kiddies doing? Playing video games. The gaming industry right now is huge.

Rock and Roll and concerts are dead. Radio as it used to be is dead. Bands and solo artists right now aren't the same as the classic rock bands the 40-60 somethings grew up on.

Radio no longer has the personalities or the songs it used to have. Some of that was captured in American Graffitti. Hey, even as late as the mid 1980's, every city had it's DJ's who actually chose the songs.

What's wrong with radio and music. It fucking lost the human factor and the personality. It became too corporate where instead of some talented DJ talking and playing songs got replaced by a corporate marketing plan.