Is payola the best way to get music played online for artists?
Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day’s broadcast. Under US law, 47 U.S.C. ยง 317, a radio station can play a specific song in exchange for money, but this must be disclosed on the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play of the song should not be counted as a “regular airplay.” The term has come to refer to any secret payment made to cast a product in a positive light (such as obtaining positive reviews). Some radio stations report spins of the newest and most popular songs to industry publications. The number of times the songs are played can influence the perceived popularity of a song. The term Payola is a portmanteau of the two words “pay” and “Victrola” meaning to bribe to play on the radio. Victrola was a radio made in the early 1920s by the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jer
WHEN executives at the world’s biggest music companies broke the law by paying radio stations to play certain songs, little did they know that as punishment they would one day be funding airtime for hundreds of promising but unsigned bands. But that’s just what happened, as the money – $12 million from Universal, $10 million from Sony, and millions more collected from other “payola” lawsuits in recent years – has found its way to places such as The Alternate Side radio. The practice of paying to get a tune played on the radio is almost as old as radio itself, but has been illegal since 1960. In the Sony lawsuit in 2005, the music giant admitted it had bestowed gifts and vacations on radio station employees in exchange for airtime. The Alternate Side, funded through the payola fines, launched late last year. Streaming live at thealternateside.org and on HD radio at 90.7 FM, it presents a finely curated selection of recorded and li
