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| From | "Josh Chasin" <jchasin@nyc.rr.com> |
| Subject | Sony Gets Nabbed for Payola |
| Date | Mon, 25 Jul 2005 21:52:45 -0400 |
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J-Lo? Say it aint so!
*************
Payola Shocker: J-Lo Hits, Others Were 'Bought' by
Sony
Monday, July 25, 2005
By Roger Friedman
Payola Shocker: J-Lo Hits, Others Were 'Bought' by
Sony
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 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 memo notes that the
company actually lost spins - or plays of the record -
even though they laid out money for them.
See above: The internal memos from Sony Music,
revealed today in the New York state attorney
general'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 radio stations in the Top 23
markets will receive $1000, 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 horn 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 today: Sony Music - now known as Sony/BMG -
has to pony up a $10 million settlement with New
York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. 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 players being
sent to DJs and radio programmers in exchange for
getting records on the air. And not just electronic
gifts went to these people either. According to the
papers released today, 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 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 Simpson, for whom
Sony laid on big bucks in the last couple of years to
turn her into something she's clearly not: a star.
And 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 naïve!)
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 .
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163537,00.html
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