I found some articles in Billboard about Prince and The Good Life.

Including how his European lable paid for airplay for The Good Life by the New Power Generation

I posted them at http://www.neosoul.com/ri...ts/prince/

http://neosoul.com/riaa/artists/prince/singles/

and http://neosoul.com/riaa/a...dlife.html

you might even find an Easter egg

NeoSoul said:

I found some articles in Billboard about Prince and The Good Life.

Including how his European lable paid for airplay for The Good Life by the New Power Generation

I posted them at http://www.neosoul.com/ri...ts/prince/

http://neosoul.com/riaa/artists/prince/singles/

and http://neosoul.com/riaa/a...dlife.html

you might even find an Easter egg

.

Payola is alive and well everywhere, it's standard practice, especially for major labels, so no need to be surprised. It's just more refined these days, so instead of cash-in-hand, they use "independent promoters" who'll pass along the "gifts", "freebies" or even money disguised as consultancy fees.
.
Remember when Madonna got caught on providing radio execs with laptops and call girls to push Maverick releases such as Jagged Little Pill?

But ALL major artists benefited greatly from payola, including Prince in the 80's too. You simply can't get your record played on radio unless you pay these "indies".

.

So my only surprise in regards to this article is how could Edel be so amateurish to get caught.

.

[Edited 12/4/16 6:29am]

ya, i tried to get a local station to play some of my music and offered money, i wasn't too smooth about it though and he chided me saying "ya, like i'd just say, 'sure, few hundred and i'll play your song'" I replied "ain't not smooth way to ask if you take payola."

Prince is said to have paid 2 millions dollars in payola to make TMBGITW to chart so high.

RODSERLING said:

if it was that easy, i would think he'd have paid 2 million for a few more of his songs, especially in the era where he was feuding with wb, people forget but he was really being written off at that time, no one saw TMBGITW coming, it was just a great song with great timing. He's had many other songs as good or better that are forgotten about.