Payola still keeps indie bands’ music off the air

October 21, 2008 2:16 p.m. by Andrew Winistorfer

After a lengthy payola scandal investigation lat year, indie label trade group A2IM is still reporting that payola is keeping indie music off of our nation’s radio stations (NPR not included, of course). A2IM did a study and here’s what they found:

- Over 92% of independent labels report no change in their relationship with commercial radio since the settlement

- 41% reported that payola remains a determining factor in commercial radio airplay

- 47% said indie promotion companies are still a factor

- Asked if that had asked for payola since the FCC settlement, only 39 labels answered and 1 in 4 of those said that they had

So, basically, payola is still keeping bands on independent labels off the radio, even after the FCC made promises to level the playing field. I’m not sure if that’s a huge deal (I’m sure it hurts album sales moderately) but indie music has increasingly become more internet-focused, so radio isn’t as important. [Hypebot]

3 Responses

October 21, 2008 at 5:10 p.m.

BrandonRoss

Radio's going to be important for a long time, still. There's just no way to prove that when all they play is Top 40.

October 21, 2008 at 11:28 p.m.

EStan

This is pretty shocking and disgusting news. I thought we were over this in the 50s. Ugh.

February 1, 2009 at 2:26 p.m.

SueB

The lawsuit settlement was supposed to give airtime to independent music, which is 80% of the music out there. I guess that is what Clearchannels "New" and "Discover" is all about -- independent musicians can submit their music. My MAIN complaints about the program are: 1) Exactly how do we know if a song is getting airplay? and 2) Clearchannel did not install an embedded music player onto their sites and instead requires and MSN download. The download is free but the player is so horrible it is unusable. The download comes with an "ad" for expensive upgrades. I think this is illegal. If the terms of the consent decree are that they are providing access to indie music, then they better get a decent embedded player that works. Since myspace and every other space has decent embedded players, it is highly insulting that Clearchannel would make such feeble efforts. I have emailed them about this specific issue three times and gotten no response.