LOS ANGELES -- When executives at Sony BMG needed to drum up support in 2002 for Jennifer Lopez's album "This Is Me ... Then," they called the program director of a San Diego radio station and offered her a 32-inch plasma TV in exchange for adding the artist's songs to her playlist.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment knew such payola, or "pay-for-play," was improper. Nonetheless, the company asked the programmer to provide a fictitious contest winner's name and Social Security number to cover up her involvement.
The station executive got her TV, and J-Lo got her spins.
The alleged exchange was disclosed in a mass of e-mails, BlackBerry messages and other documents made public Monday by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. That electronic paper trail led the second-largest music company to a $10-million settlement.
Spitzer said Sony BMG executives offered "outright bribes" to radio programmers to make sure the company's artists got heard. Among the goodies Sony BMG gave employees of stations owned by Infinity Broadcasting, Clear Channel Communications and others: airplane tickets, cash, vacation packages, PlayStation video game systems, DVD players and laptop computers.
Sony BMG, home to such artists as Tony Bennett and the Dixie Chicks, promised Monday not to pay radio stations in exchange for airplay. The company issued a formal statement acknowledging that "various employees pursued some radio promotion practices on behalf of the company that were wrong and improper." The company also fired an executive vice president of promotions at one of its labels.
At the news conference in his Lower Manhattan office, Spitzer said payola today was as widespread and "corrosive" as it was in the 1950s.
"It is omnipresent," Spitzer said. "It is driving the industry. And it is wrong. It reaches to the very top of the industry on the radio side and on the label side."
In 1960, Congress passed an anti-payola law banning broadcasters from taking cash or anything of value in exchange for playing specific songs unless they disclosed the transaction to listeners. Spitzer launched his investigation based on a similar law passed by the New York Legislature.
Spitzer's investigation continues at the other three major record companies -- Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Warner Music Group -- as well as at the country's largest radio corporations. Many industry insiders say the Sony BMG settlement could provide a template for agreements with other companies. Each company said it was cooperating with Spitzer but declined to comment further.
Documents released as part of the Sony BMG settlement depicted the seamier side of the music business.
"What do I have to do to get Audioslave on WKSS this week?!!?" a Sony BMG employee promoting the Audioslave song "Like a Stone" wrote to a Clear Channel programmer in 2003. "Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen!!!"
According to Spitzer's office, Sony BMG also expended "significant resources" to manipulate call-in request lines, paying interns and others to repeatedly phone stations posing as listeners. To make sure the callers sounded authentic, Sony BMG employees issued specific guidelines.
"You need to rotate your people," an Epic promotion employee wrote last year in an e-mail to a call-in campaign leader. "My guys on the inside say that it's the same couple of girls calling in every week and that they are not inspired enough to be put on the air. They've got to be excited. They need to be going out, or getting drunk, or going in the hot [tub], or going clubbing.... You get the idea."
Spitzer's inquiry may also prompt an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, which is responsible for enforcing payola laws. In an interview, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he was calling for his agency to launch an inquiry, which could lead to revocation of radio licenses if illegal payments were substantiated.
"If it turns out there is massive and widespread violation of the rules, I don't see how we can't take extreme actions against the guilty licensees," Adelstein said.
The settlement won't ban all gifts. Sony BMG may pay for listener giveaways and give station employees concert tickets, modest personal gifts and meals costing as much as $150 per person.
The settlement also permits the company's artists to perform at radio-sponsored events, a practice some critics describe as "play-ola," because radio stations can sponsor huge concerts without having to pay the performing bands.
It was unclear how much the settlement would affect the culture of Sony BMG, a partnership between Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and German media company Bertelsmann.
Sony BMG Music Entertainment knew such payola, or "pay-for-play," was improper. Nonetheless, the company asked the programmer to provide a fictitious contest winner's name and Social Security number to cover up her involvement.
The station executive got her TV, and J-Lo got her spins.
The alleged exchange was disclosed in a mass of e-mails, BlackBerry messages and other documents made public Monday by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. That electronic paper trail led the second-largest music company to a $10-million settlement.
Spitzer said Sony BMG executives offered "outright bribes" to radio programmers to make sure the company's artists got heard. Among the goodies Sony BMG gave employees of stations owned by Infinity Broadcasting, Clear Channel Communications and others: airplane tickets, cash, vacation packages, PlayStation video game systems, DVD players and laptop computers.
Sony BMG, home to such artists as Tony Bennett and the Dixie Chicks, promised Monday not to pay radio stations in exchange for airplay. The company issued a formal statement acknowledging that "various employees pursued some radio promotion practices on behalf of the company that were wrong and improper." The company also fired an executive vice president of promotions at one of its labels.
At the news conference in his Lower Manhattan office, Spitzer said payola today was as widespread and "corrosive" as it was in the 1950s.
"It is omnipresent," Spitzer said. "It is driving the industry. And it is wrong. It reaches to the very top of the industry on the radio side and on the label side."
In 1960, Congress passed an anti-payola law banning broadcasters from taking cash or anything of value in exchange for playing specific songs unless they disclosed the transaction to listeners. Spitzer launched his investigation based on a similar law passed by the New York Legislature.
Spitzer's investigation continues at the other three major record companies -- Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Warner Music Group -- as well as at the country's largest radio corporations. Many industry insiders say the Sony BMG settlement could provide a template for agreements with other companies. Each company said it was cooperating with Spitzer but declined to comment further.
Documents released as part of the Sony BMG settlement depicted the seamier side of the music business.
"What do I have to do to get Audioslave on WKSS this week?!!?" a Sony BMG employee promoting the Audioslave song "Like a Stone" wrote to a Clear Channel programmer in 2003. "Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen!!!"
According to Spitzer's office, Sony BMG also expended "significant resources" to manipulate call-in request lines, paying interns and others to repeatedly phone stations posing as listeners. To make sure the callers sounded authentic, Sony BMG employees issued specific guidelines.
"You need to rotate your people," an Epic promotion employee wrote last year in an e-mail to a call-in campaign leader. "My guys on the inside say that it's the same couple of girls calling in every week and that they are not inspired enough to be put on the air. They've got to be excited. They need to be going out, or getting drunk, or going in the hot [tub], or going clubbing.... You get the idea."
Spitzer's inquiry may also prompt an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, which is responsible for enforcing payola laws. In an interview, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he was calling for his agency to launch an inquiry, which could lead to revocation of radio licenses if illegal payments were substantiated.
"If it turns out there is massive and widespread violation of the rules, I don't see how we can't take extreme actions against the guilty licensees," Adelstein said.
The settlement won't ban all gifts. Sony BMG may pay for listener giveaways and give station employees concert tickets, modest personal gifts and meals costing as much as $150 per person.
The settlement also permits the company's artists to perform at radio-sponsored events, a practice some critics describe as "play-ola," because radio stations can sponsor huge concerts without having to pay the performing bands.
It was unclear how much the settlement would affect the culture of Sony BMG, a partnership between Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and German media company Bertelsmann.
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