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   Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed

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Topic: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed (Read 175 times)

Rhune
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Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« on: Jul 26^th, 2005, 2:05pm »

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163634,00.html

Sony Bought Airtime for J-Lo and Others
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
By Roger Friedman

I always say, when people ask me, that the so-called vipers of the movie business would not last a day in the record business.

Now New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office has decided to prove the point.

"Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."

"Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K ..."

Ironically, it didn't help, as the internal memo from Sony Music quoted above notes, that the company actually lost "spins" - or plays of the record - even though it laid out money for them.

The memos, revealed yesterday in Spitzer's investigation of payola at the company, will be mind-blowing to those who are not so jaded to think records are played on the radio because they're good.

We've all known for a long time that contemporary pop music stinks. We hear "hits" on the radio and wonder, "How can this be?"

Now we know. And memos from both Sony's Columbia and Epic Records senior vice presidents of promotions circa 2002-2003 - whose names are redacted in the reports, but are well known in the industry - spell out who to pay and what to pay them in order to get the company's records on the air.

From Epic, home of J-Lo, a memo from Nov. 12, 2002, a "rate" card that shows that radio stations in the top 23 markets will receive $1,000, stations in markets 23-100 get $800, lower markets $500.

"If a record receives less than 75 spins at any given radio station, we will not pay the full rate," the memo to DJs states. "We look forward to breaking many records together in the future."

Take Jennifer Lopez's awful record, "Get Right," with its shrill horns and lifted rap. It's now clear that was a "bought" sensation when it was released last winter. So, too, were her previous "hits" "I'm Glad" and "I'm Real," according to the memos.

All were obtained by Sony laying out dough and incentives. It's no surprise. There isn't a person alive who could hum any of those "songs" now, not even J-Lo herself.

Announced yesterday: Sony Music - now known as Sony/BMG - has to pony up a $10 million settlement with New York state. It should be $100 million. And this won't be the end of the investigation. Spitzer's office is looking into all the record companies. This is just the beginning.

But what a start: Black-and-white evidence of plasma TVs, laptop computers and PlayStation 2 consoles being sent to DJs and radio programmers in exchange for getting records on the air.

Not just electronic gifts went to these people, either. According to the settlement papers, the same people also received expensive trips, limousines and lots of other incentives to clutter the airwaves with the disposable junk that now passes for pop music.
More memos: "We ordered a laptop for Donnie Michaels at WFLY in Albany. He has since moved to WHYI in Miami. We need to change the shipping address."
One Sony memo from 2002: "Can you work with Donnie to see what kind of digital camera he wants us to order?"

Another, from someone in Sony's Urban Promotion department: "I am trying to buy a walkman (sic) for Toya Beasley at WRKS/NY.... Can PRS get it to me tomorrow by 3 p.m. ... I really need to get the cd by then or I have to wait a week or two before she does her music again ..."

Nice, huh? How many times have I written in this column about talented and deserving artists who get no airplay, and no attention from their record companies? Yet dozens of records with little or no artistic merit are all over the radio, and racked in displays at the remaining record stores with great prominence.
Thanks to Spitzer's investigation, we now get a taste of what's been happening.

More memos. This one from Feb. 13, 2004: "Gave a jessica trip to wkse to secure Jessica spins and switchfoot."

That would be "jessica" as in Jessica Simpson, for whom Sony laid out big bucks in the last couple of years to turn her into something she's clearly not: a star.
Then there's the story of a guy named Dave Universal, who was fired from Buffalo's WKSE in January when there was word that Spitzer was investigating him.
Universal (likely a stage name) claimed he did nothing his station didn't know about. That was probably true, but the DJ got trips to Miami and Yankee tickets, among other gifts, in exchange for playing Sony records.
From a Sony internal memo on Sept. 8, 2004: "Two weeks ago it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE."

Franz Ferdinand, Jessica Simpson, J-Lo, Good Charlotte, etc. Not exactly the Who, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin or the Kinks. The "classic" is certainly gone from rock.
The question now is: Who will take the fall at Sony for all this? It's not like payola is new. The government investigated record companies and radio stations in the late 1950s, and again in the mid-1970s. (When we were in high school, we used to laugh about how often The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again?" was played on WABC. We were young and naďve!) Spitzer is said to be close friends with Sony's new CEO, Andrew Lack, who publicly welcomed the new investigations earlier this year when they were announced. Did Lack anticipate using Spitzer's results to clean house? Stay tuned ...

« Last Edit: Jul 26^th, 2005, 2:06pm by Rhune »

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luci
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #1 on: Jul 26^th, 2005, 2:08pm »

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Now you know why a recording opens on
Bilboard #1, the first day!

We learned years ago, it all about the $$$$$.
A big disappointment indeed!

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can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Boradamer
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #2 on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 10:15am »

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Nothing suprising to me. When I was working in the record industry the local reps would give CD copies (CD's were new back then) to top selling stores if they could get it played during peak hours. They would send in plain clothes reps to listen to what was being played and stores that played their new CD's would get nice perks.

I had several backstage passes to concerts, free CDs, attend record release parties with the band, etc all due to my connections with the reps.

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Dixie
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #3 on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 6:43pm »

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Wow!! That explains a LOT!!!!!

Britney, J-Lo, Destiny's Child. Anyone who has ever seen these people perform live can attest to the utter lack of talent. I guess this proves the addage...money talks. :barf:

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Rhune
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #4 on: Jul 28^th, 2005, 7:18pm »

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If they're spending all their money on making this a hit, is anyone actually buying it? Are there profits? Maybe this is the cause of their loss, and not internet downloads... :devilish:

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Boradamer
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #5 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 8:30am »

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It's funny. Most people think musicians are filthy rich once they make an album.

When I was in the industry very little went to the band. The songwriter made some money, the band made a little and the company made the rest.

The cost to make a CD back in the mid 90's was about .90 the rest was profit for the company. Seeing how most sold for around $15.00 you can see how the company made money.

Many of the successful artists were songwriters and sold their works to other artists but retained rights to the song itself. That way if it was remade, used in a commercial, etc. they made money on it.

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Rhune
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #6 on: Jul 29^th, 2005, 11:47am »

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I watched an interview with the band TLC one time, and they were doing all the math on the screen, showing how they had a multi-million dollar selling album and had to personally file bankruptcy in the same year, because so little of it actually went to them. They were #1 on the charts and were living together because they couldn't afford to purchase homes. It was kinda eye opening.

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JP
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Re: Music Industry Hit Manipulation Revealed
« Reply #7 on: Aug 2^nd, 2005, 3:03pm »

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I read an article before about how a music company didn't pay the royalties to an artist. I forgot the details of the article but it really shows you that the record companies are the ones who are getting rich.

Makes you want to download MP3s more...

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