[Dixielandjazz] Now wonder OKOM gets no radio play.

[Steve barbone]

Will the middlemen song pluggers soon be out of work? Probably not, this
kind of payola has been ongoing since the recording industry was born.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Sony BMG Called Close to Settlement With NY State Attorney General

By JEFF LEEDS July 23, 2005 NY TIMES

Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, is close to a settlement with
one of the world's largest record companies to resolve accusations that it
used improper tactics to influence radio programmers to play its songs,
people involved in the discussions said last night.

The agreement between Mr. Spitzer and the record company, Sony BMG Music
Entertainment, one of four music conglomerates under investigation, is
expected to be announced on Monday, these people said. They cautioned,
however, that the talks were continuing and could still break down.

The settlement is expected to establish a blueprint for agreements that Mr.
Spitzer will probably seek with the other three major record companies,
which have all received subpoenas.

Late last year, investigators in Mr. Spitzer's office served subpoenas on
Sony BMG, a unit of Sony and Bertelsmann; the Universal Music Group, a unit
of Vivendi Universal; the EMI Group; and the Warner Music Group seeking
copies of contracts, billing records and other information detailing their
ties to independent middlemen who pitch new songs to radio programmers in
New York State. Investigators have also reviewed e-mail messages and
internal memos and have questioned senior executives at Sony.

As part of the settlement, Sony BMG is expected to admit to misconduct in
its radio promotion practices and agree to changes that would limit attempts
to influence airplay, according to people involved in the discussion.

For instance, the company is expected to end its use of independent
promoters - middlemen who are paid to persuade programmers to add new songs.

Sony BMG will also probably forgo future use of "spin programs," in which
labels pay stations to broadcast songs repeatedly, usually with an eye
toward manipulating a song's appearance on industry airplay charts.

The company, whose roster of artists includes Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé
Knowles, is also expected to agree to a multimillion-dollar fine.

Spokesmen for Mr. Spitzer's office and Sony BMG, which was created last year
as a joint venture of the music units of Sony and Bertelsmann, declined to
comment last night.

Representatives for the other three companies also declined to comment.

Mr. Spitzer's investigation has echoes of the "payola" scandals that roiled
the music industry early in the rock n' roll era, when cash bribes were paid
to disc jockeys in exchange for playing certain songs. In the decades since,
federal law has prohibited broadcasters from accepting money or anything of
value in exchange for airplay unless the transaction is disclosed publicly.

But record companies have long used less-subtle means for currying favor
with programmers, including sending them on junkets or providing tickets to
concerts and sports events. The companies also employed middlemen who paid
the radio stations annual fees, which they say are not tied to airplay of
specific songs. 

Many companies have, however, scrambled to update their promotion policies
during the last year in the wake of receiving subpoenas from Mr. Spitzer, in
part to pre-empt charges. The labels now typically require more complete
documentation to show that cash and prizes sent for radio promotions are
used as intended. 

The companies also took steps to reduce practices that might be construed as
bribery, according to people briefed on the policies.

Sony BMG, for example, said executives could buy only a personal gift, with
a cap on the value, for a radio programmer for a "life event," like a
wedding or the birth of a child, according to people briefed on the policy.

The companies have also terminated the use of certain middlemen, many of
whom may have been losing influence for years as individual stations were
swallowed up by big corporations.

Still, Mr. Spitzer's inquiry represents the most significant investigation
of radio promotion in many years, and it has been divisive in the industry,
with some saying it will bring about needed changes and others saying it is
merely a quest for headlines.

In the late 1990's, the Justice Department began a broad investigation of
payola that eventually encompassed dozens of Latin and urban-music radio
stations across the nation.

It won convictions against two top executives at Fonovisa, the biggest
independent record label in the Spanish-language market, and a top radio
executive.