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  • From: Anatoly Volynets <av AT total-knowledge.com>
  • To: tom poe <tompoe AT amihost.com>
  • Cc: Open Studios <Open_Studios AT yahoogroups.com>, Community Studios <community_studios AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Community_studios] Re: [Open_Studios] [Fwd: NBC: Look out record industry, Spitzer's gonna get ya]
  • Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 14:09:07 -0700 (PDT)

Sorry, this is a test message sent on Tom's request.
-Anatoly

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, tom poe wrote:


Yahoo!
-----Forwarded Message-----

From: Steve Hoffman <steve AT goodnote.com>
To: BLUES-L AT LISTS.NETSPACE.ORG
Subject: NBC: Look out record industry, Spitzer's gonna get ya
Date: 22 Oct 2004 00:00:46 -0400

Elliot Spitzer, the high sheriff of New York State (aka the Attorney
General), an aggressive fighter against corporate greed and corruption,
has set his sights on the sleezy plug-o-la practices of today's music
industry. The following is reprinted verbatim from the Oct. 22 NY Times
(posted on its website as of midnight):

Record Labels Said to Be Next on Spitzer List for Scrutiny
By JEFF LEEDS

Published: October 22, 2004


Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, has recently
taken on a procession of corporate powers from Wall Street analysts
to mutual funds to insurance brokers. Now he is casting his eyes on
the music industry, particularly its practices for influencing what
songs are heard on the public airwaves.

According to several people involved, investigators in Mr. Spitzer's
office have served subpoenas on the four major record corporations -
the Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the EMI
Group and the Warner Music Group - seeking copies of contracts,
billing records and other information detailing their ties to
independent middlemen who pitch new songs to radio programmers in
New York State.

The inquiry encompasses all the major radio formats and is not
aiming at any individual record promoter, these people said. Mr.
Spitzer and representatives for the record companies declined to
comment.

The major record labels have paid middlemen for decades, though the
practice has long been derided as a way to skirt a federal statute -
known as the payola law - outlawing bribes to radio broadcasters.

Broadcasters are prohibited from taking cash or anything of value in
exchange for playing a specific song, unless they disclose the
transaction to listeners. But in a practice that is common in the
industry, independent promoters pay radio stations annual fees -
often exceeding $100,000 - not, they say, to play specific songs,
but to obtain advance copies of the stations' playlists. The
promoters then bill record labels for each new song that is played;
the total tab costs the record industry tens of millions of dollars
each year.

The new scrutiny comes at an inconvenient time for the major record
companies, which have been pressing federal and state law
enforcement officials to shut pirate CD manufacturers and the
unimpeded flow of copyrighted music online.

The statute involved is a federal one and the case would not seem to
fit neatly into Mr. Spitzer's jurisdiction, but state attorneys
general typically have wide latitude to investigate issues involving
consumers and businesses in their states.

In this instance, Mr. Spitzer might proceed on the ground that
broadcasters' dealings with middlemen severely limit the
opportunities available to those artists who cannot afford to hire them.

These promoters flourished throughout the 1980's and most of the
1990's, but their influence began to weaken after Congress
deregulated the radio industry in 1996, allowing for an extensive
consolidation that tilted the balance of power to a handful of newly
created broadcasting mammoths.

With their newfound power, some big chains, including Clear Channel
Communications, at first tried to tap a bigger share of the labels'
promotional dollars, and designated specific independent promoters
to be the exclusive representatives for particular stations.

Promotion prices continued to rise, but at the same time the
consultants had less influence over airplay, record executives say.

In 2002, the industry's lobbying organization, the Recording
Industry Association of America, called on the government to
strengthen anti-payola laws and examine questionable practices,
including independent promotion. (Association officials are
considering whether to provide new comments and information to the
Federal Communications Commission as part of that agency's review of
radio promotion, people in the music industry have said.)

Cox Radio, and later Clear Channel, said they would not renew their
contracts with any promoters.

Since the big companies severed their ties to the practice, record
labels - suffering from piracy and other financial woes - have
sharply scaled back payments to the middlemen, and by some estimates
pay them as little as $30 million annually.

One promoter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr.
Spitzer's investigators "are not going to find anything; they're 20
years too late."

But questionable practices persist in a variety of markets and music
formats.

In the late 1990's, the Justice Department began a broad
investigation of payola that eventually encompassed dozens of Latin
and urban- music radio stations across the nation. It won
convictions against two top executives at Fonovisa, the biggest
independent record label in the Spanish-language market, and a top
radio executive. No cases have been brought in the urban-music
category. Unlike the promoters in the rock and pop fields who
receive payments as stations add a song to their playlist, many
urban-music consultants receive initial lump sums to finance the
marketing of a new single, and distribute the money as they see fit.

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Anatoly Volynets
http://www.total-knowledge.com
http://www.culturedialogue.org




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