Radio Stations Claim Payola Probe Limiting New Music

from the searching-for-unintended-consequences dept

Mon, Apr 10th 2006 2:40pm — Joseph Weisenthal

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Egat, 10 Apr 2006 @ 2:53pm

Public Interest
As far as I'm concerned, keeping RIAA-produced new music off the air IS protecting the consumers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jimmy Bear Pearson, 10 Apr 2006 @ 3:53pm

Interesting
This is interesting... There are literally thousands of new artists/tunes out there - with relatively little (or no) airtime given to anything other than 1) Tried-and-true existing music, or 2) whatever it is that is popular on MTV/VH1/iTunes.

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?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Your Average Radio Station Exec, 10 Apr 2006 @ 4:11pm

Without a trail of $100 bills, coke, and hookers, how am I suppose to find the "hits"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mark Kitchen, 10 Apr 2006 @ 4:21pm

Go internet
There are thousands of internet stations to suit any listener.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2006 @ 4:25pm

The purpose of radio...
...is to synchronize cultural experiences. So that people can share something in common. Thats easier to do with payola. If everyone could play their own stuff, the result would be chaos and inability for folks to communicate.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Evan, 10 Apr 2006 @ 5:02pm

Re: Go internet
It's kinda hard to stream internet audio in your car. That is "the need".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
S1L3NT C, 10 Apr 2006 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re: Go internet
IMHO, the only thing that FM is "good" for is public talk radio.

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
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Craig, 10 Apr 2006 @ 5:29pm

Re: Go internet
Evan said: "It's kinda hard to stream internet audio in your car. That is "the need""
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Technopundit, 10 Apr 2006 @ 5:40pm

Um...
Could it have anything to do with the fact that record companies have painted themselves into such a corner that the majority of the new music being published sucks?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mark Kitchen, 10 Apr 2006 @ 5:57pm

Re: Re: Go internet
Of course! but don't forget the almighty bitrate delima. I could broadcast over shortwave if needed, but the quality would be absolutley horrid.

On the same topic,we did run a cell phone 8k stream about 3 years ago - just for the hell of it :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
otac0n, 10 Apr 2006 @ 6:36pm

Here is what happened...
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2006 @ 7:07pm

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
J-Man, 10 Apr 2006 @ 8:36pm

Re: Interesting
Its not that the radio stations don't want to play new stuff. Its the old mighty corporations that are in control of what we listen to and who gets to be the hot ticket. Most of them are no-talent ass clowns that suck good dick. Or think of this.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wawa_lik, 11 Apr 2006 @ 5:20am

J-Dog reporting that recent DEA sweeps account for a loss of third quarter profits
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mark Fox, 11 Apr 2006 @ 9:36am

Investigation started last year
The initial investigations started/were announced last year. Spitzer announced a settlement with Sony BMG on July 25, 2005. (http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/jul/jul25a_05.html) The latest announcement were for suits against radio stations. He went after the record companies earlier so there is enough time for the DJs at the radio stations to change what they do and affect this year's paylists.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
crystalattice (profile), 11 Apr 2006 @ 3:42pm

I don't listen to FM anymore
I really don't care if the radio stations die or if new music doesn't get played. There is an extremely small amount of new music that I like.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]