Radio Stations Claim Payola Probe Limiting New Music
from the searching-for-unintended-consequences dept
Some radio stations have gone on an interesting PR offensive against Eliot Spitzer's payola investigations. They're claiming that DJs and music programmers have become reluctant to play new music, out of fear that it might draw unwanted attention to them. They back up their argument with anecdotal evidence, as well as data claiming that fewer new songs were played in the first quarter of 2006 than in 2005. If it were true, it would be a fascinating case of unintended consequences, but their argument doesn't seem to add up. For one thing, Spitzer launched his suit in early March, so that doesn't leave much time in the quarter for things to adjust so much (and of course you can't just take one data point and draw a conclusion from it). Furthermore, the alleged payola was for playing Jessica Simpson and Avril Lavigne, not exactly new music, as the DJs claim. The whole payola case has become a spectacle. Spitzer's now claiming that the FCC is undermining him by pursuing its own actions, essentially revealing that his forays are a publicity stunt. So much for protecting the consumers.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Public Interest
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Interesting
Yes, some of our music isn't ready for primetime, but there is a great deal of it that is. Why in the world would a radio station not want to play new stuff, even if it is indie or unheard of? What business case is there that says that new music is risky?
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Re: Interesting
I really do not belive these people that listen to the same things all their lives EX: Classic Rock I mean dosent it get a little old after a while. I really enjoy hearing something new and fresh. The best music now days never gets played on the radio, well college radio. I'm just really just sick of the MAN. These people are just living in the past man.
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Go internet
There is no need to rely on the FM stations to fulfil your music requirements. My station in particular (http://afterhoursdjs.org) serves 750,000 listeners a month playing a wide variety of electronic music. This music is provided by the listeners/djs for airtime. Win / Win situation.
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Re: Go internet
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Re: Re: Go internet
Yo, Evan...
Here's a tip. Create a playlist. Burn a disc. Heck, burn two. If you're feeling guilty, buy your CDs from Canada so the RIAA can get it's royalties...
If you don't have a CD player, get a cassette adapter. Plug a player (mp3 or CD) into it.
If you don't have cassette player in your car, get a personal FM transmitter (costs about $20). Plug it into your cigarette lighterutility outlet, connect it to your player, and set your car stereo to the matching frequency. Then you can "pump up the volume" ala Christian Slater.
If all you have is AM, you were out of luck to begin with...
:-P
S1L3NT
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The purpose of radio...
Do you really think that radio can be used to leverage economics to encourage the advancement of the arts? Thats the only moral reason I can think of to be upset about this. But in the long run, arts are advanced more by arbitrarily changing form entirely than they are about slow refinement of stale forms.
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Re: Go internet
Done. Treo 650 + unlimited Internet bandwidth + Pocket Tunes (music app) + Aux input on your car stereo = any streaming MP3 source anywhere you can get a cellular signal.
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Re: Re: Go internet
On the same topic,we did run a cell phone 8k stream about 3 years ago - just for the hell of it :)
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Um...
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Here is what happened...
The computer systems were unable to calculate the amount properly, and charged him an even $1 trillion per individual.
It appears that he knew 218 people.
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Re: Here is what happened...
Here is what happened... by otac0n on Apr 10th, 2006 @ 6:36pm
Obviously, the very instant the father died, he called everybody he knew infinitely many times for zero minutes each.
The computer systems were unable to calculate the amount properly, and charged him an even $1 trillion per individual.
It appears that he knew 218 people.
Wrong article, you wanted this one:
http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20060410/1614206
Hope it wasn't a techdirt glitch.
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Investigation started last year
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I don't listen to FM anymore
The vast majority of my collection is stuff from the 80's and 90's plus large amounts of Euro-tunes. Most of it you won't hear on normal radio anyways.
There's only one radio show I listen to regularly and that's Coast to Coast AM, 'cause ghost stories kick butt. And even if the radio station stopped playing it, I can always get the podcasts and streaming audio files from the web site.
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