Payola (noun): undercover or indirect payment (as to a disc jockey) for a commercial favor (as for promoting a paticular album).
aka, here\'s some sneakers, a free vacation, a flat screen tv, etc... now only play our bands so that they go to the top of the charts.
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source SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT: Spitzer\'s `pay-for-play\' probe yields $10 million settlementAssociated Press
Published July 26, 2005
NEW YORK -- Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday agreed to pay $10 million and stop bribing radio stations to feature its artists in what a state official called a more sophisticated generation of the payola scandals of decades ago.
The agreement springs from an investigation by New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, who called the practice "pervasive" in the industry and suggested other music industry giants could face similar penalties.
Pay-for-play "is driving the industry, and it is wrong," Spitzer said.
Sony BMG, whose labels include hundreds of artists from Tony Bennett to Beyonce Knowles and the Dixie Chicks, said some of its employees had engaged in "wrong and improper" practices.
The company said it looked forward to "defining a new, higher standard in radio promotion" but did not say whether it had fired or disciplined any of those employees. A spokeswoman did not return a call seeking further comment.
A 1960 federal law and related state laws bar record companies from offering undisclosed financial incentives in exchange for airplay. Asked why he did not bring criminal charges in the case, Spitzer noted those laws governing pay-for-play are more specific and difficult to violate than the civil laws.
