Photo
Images665 Casey Kasem, Troy Cory, Tip Tobin, Sonny
Bono, Rene Hall, Jerry Wallace, Bob Roberts, Josie
Cory. Permission to use for News Media and PR
purposes)
Feature
Story / 43rd Week of
2005 / "The 1950s was the era when paying for
playing a 45rpm was considered okay, until somebody
came along and said it wasn't fair play. The
practice was eventually coined Payola, and it
seemed like the only thing around that controled
the paying of cash to the jock at the time, was
wine, women and song and an act of Congress", says
Troy Cory.
At the time, Troy was an up and
coming recording artist for both Specialty and
Mercury Records at the time when payola was at its
best.
The word Payola brought
back a lot of memories, when I read that a tiny
Tarzana-based record label is suing music giant
Sony BMG Music Entertainment. All I can say is,
'Good luck.' The lawsuit by TSR Records, filed in
U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is claiming
that the company broke antitrust laws by lavishing
gifts on radio station employees in exchange for
airplay.
TSR Records, filing in
October, 2005 -- builds its case on Sony BMG's "pay
for play" civil settlement in July with New York
Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer. The company paid a
$10-million fine and admitted that some employees
used improper promotion practices. Among the
allegations: Sony BMG employees gave plasma-screen
TVs and provided travel to radio
programmers.
TSR, a New Age and
smooth-jazz label with about $1 million in annual
revenue, alleged in the lawsuit that pay-for-play
actions by the industry's second-largest company
made it nearly impossible for independent labels to
get airplay for their
artists.
"The best way to sell albums
is to get songs played on the radio," TSR President
Tom Hayden said. "But we can't afford to bribe
programmers with plasma-screen TVs, so we're shut
out."
A representative for Sony
BMG said the company did not comment on pending
litigation.
Legal experts said TSR's
suit faced an uphill battle, although courts have
looked favorably on similar claims in the oil and
grain industries when payments were made to
undermine
rivals.
"If Sony BMG is getting
songs played on the radio through illegal means,
and if it is happening frequently enough to harm
competitors, then there is a legitimate antitrust
claim," said Robert Lande, a professor of law at
the University of Baltimore. "But you can't just
piggyback on Spitzer's
investigation."
TSR's claim may benefit from
Spitzer's inquiry, Lande and other experts said,
because the independent label might force Sony BMG
to hand over documents the company provided to
Spitzer. Only a small portion of those records,
estimated at hundreds of thousands of e-mails and
memos, was released in
July.
The lawsuit, which does not
specify the damages sought, is the latest fallout
from a settlement that continues to ripple through
the music industry. Last week, Clear Channel
Communications Inc. confirmed it had fired two
employees identified in the Sony BMG-Spitzer
settlement as having accepted
gifts.
Spitzer continues to
investigate the three other major record companies
-- Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Warner
Music Group -- and the country's largest radio
chains. New York and federal law bans programmers
from accepting gifts in exchange for airing
specific songs unless the transaction is revealed
to
listeners.
Hayden said his lawyers,
Neville Johnson and Maxwell Blecher, might ask the
court to declare the suit a class-action case and
include all the major record companies as
defendants. If granted, the designation would
potentially treble the damages that could be
recovered.
"Maybe if it's too expensive
to cheat," Hayden said, "then I'll stop walking
into programmers' lobbies only to find out that
their playlists have been sold to the highest
bidders."
We Preserve The
Moment Yes90
tviNews S90
107
Sony and BMG Being Sued for Payola, brings
back a lot of memories reports 1959
Mercury Reoording artist, Troy
Cory.
/
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International Magazine's Person Of The
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NEWS
Convergence - 43rd Week of 2005
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