I did college radio in the late 90s and these snakes would call, email and send promo material constantly. We had a program director who finally "bit". He was immediately overwhelmed with offers until everyone at the station noticed the playlists were mainly songs from artists signed to the same label. We were like "Dude, really??". One morning I went "off playlist" to honor a request and he flipped his shit and pulled me from the air for a week. Money corrupts...quick.
It was like "Here's the latest from Save Ferris, followed by Junkhouse, Hooverphonic, Peach Union, K's Choice" and every song was DOG ASS. This was college radio and we eventually revolted and started making fun of the truly terrible songs while on air, causing mayhem and merriment. I spent an entire shift playing "Consideration" by Reef over and over again because "I feel like our listeners aren't quite getting it" - Ahh, the roaring 90s. (Yes, we're talking SONY 550 here lol)
Payola is so blatant in the world of spotify playlists. At this point I feel like I have to go out of my way to avoid the spotify made playlists and look for user created playlists. Individual users have the opportunity to become the new DJs spreading lesser known music, but the problem with that outlook is there is no way for an individual to earn money off that like a station could with ad time. I'm not saying spotify should let users monetize playlists, but there is an opportunity there to rethink the incentive structure of the whole industry.
Spotify in general pushes certain artists and their new releases _hard._ It is so blatant. It feels like popular music is decided by money now more than ever; even though Internet gave anyone and everyone a platform to show off their music and created some amazing new genres and subcultures, the big labels adapted fast and learned to harness it to their advantage. Now they can tout "indie" or "undiscovered" artists that are totally paid for, often the children of powerful people or otherwise manufactured groups and industry plants. At least something like K-pop is (mostly) transparent about how manufactured it all is, though it comes with its own host of problems. Remember when the industry was acting like illegally downloading music was going to _destroy music as we know it?_ And now streaming music is the norm. Sure, they get ad revenue now, but that was the point - consumers were demonstrating that they can't keep buying new albums (cause it's so costly) and would rather discover new music and often just download song by song. A lot of acts got big that way, and the artists themselves make pennies from the albums, the real money is in concerts and sharing your music freely gets those fans. Now the industry is on board but they still act like they were right all along - that it wasn't them taking too long to understand consumer habits and fighting inevitable chage and villifying a whole generation of potential customers. People don't mind paying if it's convenient and they get what they paid for - that's why Netflix worked, people could've downloaded those movies but it was easier to pay 7 bucks for a subscription. These days we discover music mostly because it's pushed on us, or through (dubious) algorithms. Your idea about the playlist curators is great. We should be entitled to know if a song was paid to be on a playlist or if there are industry connections at play. Truly independent playlist creators could be trendsetters. I let RU-vid recommend me stuff, but I mostly rely on recommendations from my friends
I work at a place where we can choose a spotify playlist. I never use it otherwise. Somehow, no matter fucking what, morrissey and the smiths show up like 10 times a day without fail. Especially when youre putting on Vampire Weekend radio, theres definitely something fuckin weird with that
I found out through her cover of Black Sheep in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. She had a good voice tbh EDIT: I JUST GOT TO THAT PART IN THE VIDEO AND I DID NOT KNOW SHE STARTED THAT EARLY WOW.
It will never be as big as it was I don't think, because very few people listen to terrestrial radio anymore. Everyone I know has a playlist they have curated on their devices and listen via Bluetooth in their car.
@TECTONICSMASH Yeah, but your choices of pre-made playlists is a whole lot more diverse than the over the air radio stations we had access to in the late 90s early 00s.
@@chesspiece81 They do, though. Radio factors heavily into Billboard's charting and the general public still turns it on in their cars. Labels continue to funnel goods and services into the industry for their artists to gain spins and traction.
Another reason radio payola sucked: the airwaves are severely limited public resources (sold off to the wolves in the 90s), and before ubiquitous broadband that meant corporate labels were killing off any remaining chance for a listener to hear songs that got on the air due to merit. These days no one _has_ to listen to those stations for new music, but the airwaves are still a public good and badly need regulation to give them back to small, local orgs.
I think this was the "biggest" issue with payola. Someone paying to rig a Spotify playlist is NBD for most of us, because there are millions of alternatives. Radio frequencies are finite commodities, though, and especially before the days of 5G, still meant something to anyone more than about 20 feet from a desktop computer. They still kinda do today - TuneIn built itself on being the clearinghouse that let you listen to ALL the radio stations around the world. But there's something about having a radio at work, hearing that song that frankly kinda sucks, and then hearing it one hour later, and the only option being to turn to another radio station that's probably playing the same damn song. Especially since, as you pointed out, a decade before the consolidation of the industry was allowed to happen, so that instead of paying five guys $1000 to get your shitty artist covered, you could now pay one guy $2500 for the same coverage.
I am a volunteer presenter on a local radio station. I don't get paid for doing my show and we're certainly not big enough to be involved in payola schemes, but I remember having to sign something that says something along the lines of "I have not and will not accept payment or gifts, monetary or otherwise, for the playback of specific songs". I don't know if this is a thing other stations do, but it meant I knew a little bit about payola prior to watching this video. I really appreciate the consolidation of examples as I always assumed it was just cash and smaller bands. Wild stuff.
I hate having missed out on worthwhile radio. Smaller local stations being able to play lesser known music they think is worthwhile, making for an incredibly diverse experience and giving you real leads into new genres and groups. Radio as a whole seems pointless now. I have several and don't use them. Its a black hole.
😂 I know what you mean. There's all kinds of stories about songs breaking on college radio -- like Radiohead only taking off because some stations in Israel started playing Creep. Seems like such a badass experience to have worked for a hip college station back in the day.
College radio can still be pretty good. I remember tuning into the local station a few years back around midnight and the incredibly stoned DJ just decided to play all of Hawkwind's Space Ritual.
In Argentina they played it a little different: major labels got together and started their own radio station. "Los 40 Principales" (The Main 40). This works well for them in two ways: first, they get to promote whatever they want. Second, due to the station name and the lack of official charts in the country (I think), people get the impression that those 40 songs are actually the most popular tracks of the moment.
When I moved to a new city, I was like "cool, new place, new radio station!" The song lineup was EXACTLY the same as where I came from. I was saddened. I was tired of my last place's radio lineup, which was predictable down to around the time of the day.
That's due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which ended the limitations on how many radio stations corporations could own. Sadly, that very law essentially killed off a lot of radio stations playing different types of music in the area. I remember in the early 1990's I could hear New Age and Easy Listening music on stations dedicated to that type of music.
Ha, ha, ha. I remember being 17 years old in 2002, and "Harder to Breathe" became one of my favorite songs. I was very frustrated that the rock and pop stations in Atlanta never added it to their playlists. 🤷🏿♀️
Any politician can have as many adult prostitutes as they want as long as they produce RESULTS at their work. Certain people didn’t like that he was blowing the whistle on their corruption so they tried to disgrace his name for doing something that they ALL do.
Reminds me of what the CIA tried to do with MLK Jr. Sex scandals should only be scandals if it's non consensual or relavent to their job. I don't give a shit about somebody cheating on their wife, at least not if I don't know them personally.
It was also early 2000s, I was a toddler then so I don't know, but were people less ok with prostitution than they are now? (Not that people are ok with it now, just less)
There’s dirt like that on almost every politician I’d imagine, they release if you don’t play ball. It’s called blackmail. What do people think Jeffrey Epstein was doing?
WAIT WAIT WAITTT- this just brought back a memory I'd almost forgotten! If anyone here had Sirius XX radio in 2019, do you remember how EVERY SINGLE pop station was playing that one collaboration Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber had?? I literally avoided the stations-and heck, Spotify radio stations- for half a year because of it. And you cannot convince me that it was not a form of payola fueling this, I mean sure, I listen to songs I enjoy on loop sometimes, but who wants to hear that same song OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR ALMOST A YEAR.
In Chicago we had a rock station in the early 2000’s that played a Top 10 every night. Callers would call in and vote for their favorite songs. I participated in it myself from time to time. One night out of nowhere a new band shows up on the top 10 and takes the 1 spot. That band was Linkin Park. Payola.
The great thing about these emails detailing that the radio stations not even following through, it confirms the fact that if there is one business scummier than the music industry, it’s the radio industry.
The whole entertainment industry can be a bit scummy, in my opinion. It's a problem that started to happen in the Western world once live entertainment started to move to larger concert halls and theatres early in the 19th Century. It may not be absurd that a lot of _payola_ money changed hands in order to get Beethoven's later symphonies performed in public.
I personally think it's actually kind of less blatant because iHeart Media, Spotify and Apple Music can be accessed by anyone willing to pay a small amount of money per month. It wasn't like the 1950's, when _payola_ bribing had to ber really aggressive due to limitations on how many radio stations a corporation can own.
Oh god, my world is corrupted, I wasn't a punk, I was PUNKED! The video is kind of like a "No duh sleazeball managers would do that, of course" But it also makes me think of the decent bands/artists I've liked over the years that totally coulda been huge, except they didn't have the money to buy the airtime. Depressing.
"NY Attorney General in 2005 was forced to leave office in shame over a sex scandal" Ahh such an innocent time when politicians could be forced out of office over petty sex crimes with consenting adults
@@eric_clover Yes. Every presidential impeachment that has been handed out has been rightful. Those charges are scrutinized more than any other political consequence. The point is Nixon saw the shame of even being possibly impeached (he wasn't, but he knew the process to do it was starting) as enough to resign while certain other presidents simply did not care.
In November 2004, the song “Predictable” by Good Charlotte fell on the pop chart from #24 to #46 in a single week. It’s the biggest single week drop on record under the methodology of spins per week. Kind of makes sense now; I always thought of big , sudden drops on the chart (that are not caused by the emergence of a follow-up single) as a sign of a song being played out of obligation. This is kind of depressing, because almost every artist mentioned in this entire video is great, and some of my fondest memories of 2000’s involve the fact that Audioslaves, Franz Ferdinands, and 30 Seconds to Mars could still get onto the pop charts. Now that appears to be somewhat fraudulent. Although I guess there’s always going to be a little fraudulence with all the manipulation that takes place by these major labels to get songs on the charts.
@@crnkmnky I still consider Take me out a staple of mid 2000's radio. I have it cemented in my mind as it was one of the songs heavily used to market the PSP
As an independent musician who has released his own stuff, the current state of the music industry is so much worse now. It's pay to play all the way down, from top to bottom. Either musicians themselves or their labels pay for listens on streaming services and SoundCloud, pay for follows, pay for influencers to 'review' and promote, pay for popular playlist creators to put your song in their playlists, and it just goes on and on. The music market is saturated and money is what gets you discovered. While surely a very small percent take off on TikTok naturally, a lot of the time, it's all paid for.
then you get the vaporwave scene, and theres basically no pay for play as far as i can tell. just people making and enjoying music. pop music is where the dogshit is
@@Inexpressable the issue is that the mainstream has no meritocracy, I'd assume vaporwave has very little pay to play because there's no pay to listen lmao. We are talking about why pop music is not good. No one cares about vaporwave beats to chill/study to. We all know it's dogshit you think anyone is just learning that from this video? Do you share your deep thoughts like this on every video?
I have to agree with you. I work at a performing rights organization and it seems like the best a creator can do is to skip the lines and hope for a direct licensing deal.
You can tell an industry has matured when it's complete existence is basically corruption from top to bottom. It's almost as if adding money to an equation distorts it's entire purpose. Entertaining people with musical performances and recordings? No, that's just a tool to make money and it's only value is economical. No artistic value, no intrinsic value, only what can be speculated and manufactured. People say I'm cynical, but I'm really just tired of it all.
Do people forget that those same companies tried to make Radio a monthly subscription? Same people who made cable a paid subscription and the same people who want to monopolize the internet with "bundles" and "packages".
Oh man, this video was a random algorithm pull for me but this is my SHIT. Not that I know a lot, but rather that this is exactly the kind of video essay I will mainline hardcore. Great content! Also fantastic editing and illustration.
Don't you love how every time a major corporation is caught with their pants down all they get is a slap on the wrist financially, learn nothing and proceed to find new and interesting ways to go right back to what they were doing?
One of the reasons why I gave up working in the industry. No I teach young people drums for the love of music, and for their own benefit… I make an effort to infuse them with the idea that the music is what’s important.. not getting a “deal” or making it. The whole industry is a disgusting cesspool that must be avoided if you want to keep sane and happy
man, your videos always were really informative and entertaining. but with the production on this one, you took the thing to whole nother level! much respect to you and partykaleta!
Whoa, my old band used to play with Get Set Go. Mike TV from GSG would book weekly gigs at our favorite bar. They were always fun and Mike was always out front rocking out to every band.
To be fair, the only reason we care is because this specific way of doing it happens to be illegal. If you have enough money, You can force your way into anything
I had no idea about this. I was living in Japan at the time. The movies, TV shows, reality tv, and news that I missed still boggles my mind almost 20 years later.
Sorry Bandsplaining, you obviously spent a lot of time and effort creating this well-researched, entertaining video with original animation, but I just can't take any of it seriously. There's a huge, glaring, serious factual issue right at the beginning that completely invalidates everything that comes after. It's attorneys general, not attorney generals. /s
I gotta think people don’t talk about this anymore partly because this sort of scammy business practice is completely normal now. I mean the labels don’t need payola now because they were allowed to just buy the main streaming service outright.
When I was a kid, there was a period of probably a year where you could flip between 5-10 different channels and every single one of them would be playing Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. Like all simultaneously, with each station only 10-20 seconds ahead or behind each other in the song.
I knew labels pushed their own artists that's why you heard some random on the radio that was never heard of weeks later but didn't knew it was this blatant, and at times somewhat evil cartoon like 😅
Sorry, but your history is off. He went after big business as NY Attorney General, a role he left in 2006 to be NY Governor. Only after he became governor did the scandal come out, reported in 2008 by NYT, a paper that was not against his actions as NY AG. If the point of the scandal was to stop his actions as NY AG, it came too late for that.
Wow,I love music, but never really listened to live radio stations that often. I was a cassette/CD and Comcast music channel guy at the time. I kind of thought that was how it worked in their industry. Thank you for educating me on this.
I always thought back then that Green Day was indulging in something like this. I knew they were really popular at the time, but it was freaking CONSTANT on every radio station. I'd be hearing "Holiday" on one channel and change it to another, just to hear more "Holiday." Or American Idiot. Or Boulevard. It was every five minutes. So I just stuck with my tiny sandisk mp3 player a lot of the time
And all the payola benefits costs will have been taken out of the royalty payments (with interest) to the band - as the labels never pay for anything themselves.
I still respect that 311 has been consistently touring pretty much since they started, but I guess that can't entirely be related to a drive for music making
Honestly like blockbuster I’m glad popular radio like this has pretty much died. You said alot that these big bands needed those promotion teams. I don’t think they did that’s just how much imaginary power stations held back then.
Having grown up in this era, I just always assumed that this was the case and nothing controversial. There was so much flash-in-pan filler and good, but riskier music was always a blip with few exceptions. Even if it was a big act someone had to grease palms for it to make it on the radio. The industry didn't like or care about music, all they ever cared about was the One Simple Trick that made them money.
How long until RU-vid gets its day in the sun? I get recommended things on nearly every page that I thumbs down, "don't suggest band", etc... With one of them that just gets constantly inserted behind whatever it is I do chose to listen to, so it autoplays, and it's not even related to a lot of the genres it gets placed with.
I really don't remember hearing about Payola in 2005. Maybe it's because I liked to get my news from the radio at the time, which feels so eccentric now. But, man, I do remember wondering why top 40 stations played such awful songs over and over again at times during that period ... now I know.
Not sure if relevant to you, but apparently Nickelback was all over Canadian radio because of their 35% law: www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/qbg1kl/til_that_canadian_radio_stations_are_required_by/
The 35% CanCon rule helped a lot of Canadian acts make it in the States through airplay on CKLW in Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. (Side note: It also spawned the Mackenzie Brothers on SCTV.)
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that current _payola_ is aimed primarily at Apple, iHeart Media and Spotify, since all three have streaming apps for music that area very widely used.
Ah! Also important to note: all of these dollars the label shilled out in bribes for artists - WERE TO BE PAID BY THE ARTISTS, typically against album sales. As with most things in Capitalism, the industry's goal is to only receive the profit, not the loss - that's for the worker (here, the artist)
Excellent video - there’s so little on this scandal online. Is there a link to read the original letters / faxes released to the public in the video? I can’t find them anywhere online…
