Payola Shocker: J-Lo Hits, Others Were 'Bought' by Sony

http://www.foxnews.com/st...37,00.html

Roger Freidman

I always say when people ask me that the so-called vipers of the movie business would not last a day in the record business. Now Eliot Spitzer's office has decided to prove the point.

"Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."

"Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K …"

Ironically, it didn't help, as the memo notes that the company actually lost spins — or plays of the record — even though they laid out money for them.

See above: The internal memos from Sony Music, revealed today in the New York state attorney general's investigation of payola at the company, will be mind blowing to those who are not so jaded to think records are played on the radio because they're good. We've all known for a long time that contemporary pop music stinks. We hear "hits" on the radio and wonder, "How can this be?"

Now we know. And memos from both Sony's Columbia and Epic Records senior vice presidents of promotions circa 2002-2003 — whose names are redacted in the reports but are well known in the industry — spell out who to pay and what to pay them in order to get the company's records on the air.

From Epic, home of J-Lo, a memo from Nov. 12, 2002, a "rate" card that shows radio stations in the Top 23 markets will receive $1000, Markets 23-100 get $800, lower markets $500. "If a record receives less than 75 spins at any given radio station, we will not pay the full rate," the memo to DJs states. "We look forward to breaking many records together in the future."

Take Jennifer Lopez's awful record, "Get Right," with its shrill horn and lifted rap. It's now clear that was a "bought" sensation when it was released last winter. So, too, were her previous "hits" "I'm Glad" and "I'm Real," according to the memos. All were obtained by Sony laying out dough and incentives. It's no surprise. There isn't a person alive who could hum any of those "songs" now. Not even J-Lo herself.

Announced today: Sony Music — now known as Sony/BMG — has to pony up a $10 million settlement with New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. It should be $100 million. And this won't be the end of the investigation. Spitzer's office is looking into all the record companies. This is just the beginning.

But what a start: Black-and-white evidence of plasma TVs, laptop computers and PlayStation 2 players being sent to DJs and radio programmers in exchange for getting records on the air. And not just electronic gifts went to these people either. According to the papers released today, the same people also received expensive trips, limousines and lots of other incentives to clutter the airwaves with the disposable junk that now passes for pop music.

More memos: "We ordered a laptop for Donnie Michaels at WFLY in Albany. He has since moved to WHYI in Miami. We need to change the shipping address." One Sony memo from 2002: "Can you work with Donnie to see what kind of digital camera he wants us to order?"

Another, from someone in Sony's Urban Promotion department: "I am trying to buy a walkman for Toya Beasley at WRKS/NY.… Can PRS get it to me tomorrow by 3 p.m. … I really need to get the cd by then or I have to wait a week or two before she does her music again …"

Nice, huh? How many times have I written in this column about talented and deserving artists who get no airplay, and no attention from their record companies? Yet dozens of records with little or no artistic merit are all over the radio, and racked in displays at the remaining record stores with great prominence. Thanks to Spitzer's investigation, we now get a taste of what's been happening.

More memos. This one from Feb. 13, 2004: "Gave a jessica trip to wkse to secure Jessica spins and switchfoot." That would be Jessica Simpson, for whom Sony laid on big bucks in the last couple of years to turn her into something she's clearly not: a star.

And then there's the story of a guy named Dave Universal, who was fired from Buffalo's WKSE in January when there was word that Spitzer was investigating him. Universal (likely a stage name) claimed he did nothing his station didn't know about. That was probably true, but the DJ got trips to Miami and Yankee tickets, among other gifts, in exchange for playing Sony records. From a Sony internal memo on Sept. 8, 2004: "Two weeks ago it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE."

Franz Ferdinand, Jessica Simpson, J-Lo, Good Charlotte, etc. Not exactly The Who, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin or The Kinks. The "classic" is certainly gone from rock.

The question now is: Who will take the fall at Sony for all this? It's not like payola is new. The government investigated record companies and radio stations in the late 1950s and again in the mid 1970s. (When we were in high school, we used to laugh about how often The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again?" was played on WABC. We were young and naïve!)

Spitzer is said to be close friends with Sony's new CEO, Andrew Lack, who publicly welcomed the new investigations earlier this year when they were announced. Did Lack anticipate using Spitzer's results to clean house? Stay tuned …

A damn shame but hopefully changes will finally be made to some degree with the songs being played and the amount in which they are played. I won't hold my breath.

Well, that explains Mariah....

VoicesCarry said:

She actually couldn't get a radio hit while at sony for the last 5 years of her career. They were spending like crazy promoting Jlo. I always wondered why she got so much airplay her songs sucked. and it's funny when her album sales dropped so did her lables payolla.

.
[Edited 7/25/05 17:58pm]

I think I can hum those Jennifer Lopez songs.

Hmm hm hmmmmm hm...

No, I can't. Damn, he's right.

Spitzer got big fish Citibank in the financial world.
Let's see what he can do with SONY and the cesspool called the music business.





tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

twink69 said:

Sony stopped paying out when she divorced Mottola. Before that I'm sure Sony was kicking back all it had for her. Post-divorce her songs (ex. My All) suddenly didn't get higher than #15 or so on the Hot 100 Airplay charts.
[Edited 7/25/05 18:02pm]

If Spitzer really is good friends with Andy Lack (who was president of NBC News in 2000-2002), and Lack wanted Spitzer to look at the prior promotional history at Sony Music, then I think we can easily determine which major music honcho Mr. Spitzer is after. I wonder if a certain musical recording artist nicknamed "Mimi" may be called to testify in any future legal proceedings on this matter?

728huey said:

Lack wants to clean Mottola's house so he can make his own look good.

VoicesCarry said:

VoicesCarry said:

and Invincible

lilgish said:

I wondered why You Rock My World suddenly stalled at #10.... Guess they gave up early.

VoicesCarry said:

What's shocking is that even with the payola it made it to #10. That song was "so 2 years ago" 4 years ago!

VoicesCarry said:

Now you did it. The Michael brigade will soon be here en masse.

Explains Usher's "Confessions" and "Yeah" (why is this s**t the biggest record of this decade, so far)

Explains Ashanti entire career (notice she's gettting sued lately).

Hopefully, we'll hear some changes on the airwaves.

JANFAN4L said:

Just minor but not much.

JANFAN4L said:

Judging by Usher's record sales, I think the general republic acutally liked those songs. And Ashanti's gettin sued for going back on some contract signed -- nothing to do with her "music".

But however, this scandal does explain alot, like why certain bullshit gets "infinite spins" on the radio even though the album either flops or barely sells.

But you know every major artist has apparently had some payolla during their careers, it's not usually up to them or they may not even be aware of it. even indy labels and artists use payolla or a similar system.

VoicesCarry said:

I'm wondering how to tie all this in with MJ's anti-Sony rants and demonstrations and complaints about them not promoting Invincible. Maybe they actually DIDN'T do payola for his stuff...if so and if he knew that, you could say he had a legitimate beef (though what he expected them to do is in fact illegal)...

CandaceS said:

Who cares Micahels music rocks with or with out payolla, no payolla can make people go off like they do when they hear a Michael song on a dancefloor.

I miss the good ole days when people like Madonna got their music played the old fashioned way...by sleeping with someone.

BlaqueKnight said:

Preach

twink69 said:

Shit, that practice is still in effect. How do you think broads non-singing voices like Ashanti got into the biz? In the entertainment biz, it more less boils down to who you're connected too or who your fucking to get to the top . Somethings never change .
[Edited 7/25/05 23:11pm]

twink69 said:

I love the fact that they exposed this but typical Fox to bring opinion into the facts....They are very anti J. Lo!

Take Jennifer Lopez's awful record, "Get Right," with its shrill horn and lifted rap. It's now clear that was a "bought" sensation when it was released last winter. So, too, were her previous "hits" "I'm Glad" and "I'm Real," according to the memos. All were obtained by Sony laying out dough and incentives. It's no surprise. There isn't a person alive who could hum any of those "songs" now. Not even J-Lo herself.

If you don't have an axe to gring with Sony and J. Lo please prove it by exposing the exteremly obivious attempts by Tommy Mottola to push three Usher singles in less than a few months!

VoicesCarry said:

I remember at another board people used to point out that Mariah's singles used to sell for like $.50 when most singles were closer to three dollars! That explains a lot of her number ones!

Prospect said:

Usher sold a lot of Cds....but he was on radio all the fucking time....it was getting absurd! J. Lo sold pretty well too when her records were helped by payola.

VinnyM27 said:

FOX news biased.

I remember reading an article a few years ago when they revealed Tommy spent as much money promoting Jlo's 2001 and 2002 album as he did on Mariah's Daydream album and Michael Jackson's Dangerous album and only went double platinum and it was one of the reasons Sony didn't renew his contract.

VinnyM27 said:

Was Usher's airplay was because of payola or because it was sure shot that would attract millions of (young female) listeners (who buy anything Usher puts out)? - thus boosting the ratings. It seems to me that labels put payola behind any artists they have doubts about like J-Lo or Jessica Simpson. Payola really didnt help Jennifer Lopez on her last album cause it only went platinum. All of her other albums at least sold over 3 million. And they had her single "Get Right" ALL OF THE TIME on the radio. Nobody really seemed to like it, so I believe it was the label's intentions to make us like it.
[Edited 7/26/05 0:55am]