[Dixielandjazz] Re: PAY FOR PLAY EXPLAINS A LOT

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Hi Dan:

  It's moving rapidly to the internet stations, 1,4000 that I know of 
and counting.

It is still possible to get local air play on stations in secondary 
markets and small towns, but they are all trying to act like the big 
BOYS in the BIG CITY and play what they play in the hopes that they 
will be noticed and be able to one day get a gig in  the big city.    
Same thing happens with local newspaper journalist, who ignore the 
local artists and print long stories about guys Like ROD STEWART 
APPEARING FOUR STATES AWAY, GET IT PRINTED AND THEN ADD IT TO THEIR 
PORTFOLIO AS AN ARTICLE THEY Wrote COVERING a Major act in the hopes 
that they can springboard it to a better gig with a bigger newspaper in 
a bigger city.


The music business in no longer the music business, it is the 
advertising business.

It get tougher and tougher every day.

Everybody wants and needs music, but they all want it for free or to 
get paid to play it.

The musicians lost all touches with the reality of the situation years 
ago and who knows if they will ever figure it out again to get paid.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins



-----Original Message-----
From: DWSI at aol.com
To: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 18:35:12 EDT
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: PAY FOR PLAY EXPLAINS A LOT

    In case you are wondering why all radio stations seem to be playing 
the  same
(bad?) songs, Jacob Slichter's editorial in the New York Times Op  Ed
Section, p. A23, Friday July 29, 2005, explains a lot. Here is my 
synopsis:  I'd
be
interested in comments from the "Pros" out there:

Independent record promoters act as gatekeepers to the air waves. It 
works
like this: Current payola laws forbid a radio station from accepting  
payment
to play a song without disclosing such payment to their listeners. To  
get
around the law, the promoters pay radio stations, as a sort of  
consulting fee,
"to look at play lists," then charge the record  companies for this 
hidden
promotion much later. The station managers know  that the "fees" paid 
are to buy

air play but the lines of pay off are  sufficiently blurred to dodge 
the law.
The pay off to the promoter just takes  longer so it's sometimes called
"Show-ola." The defenders of the practice claim  you can only buy air 
time
exposure--not a guarantee of having a hit record.  The obvious problem 
is that
this form
of payola restricts access to the airwaves  for any group not able to 
afford
the big time costs. The article quotes one  group, Semisonic, as having 
to
shell out $500,000 for their new single. Whatever  happened to playing 
music
because you liked it?

Dan Spink
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