Posted by bigscreen on 03/10/06 12:46

A US radio giant took payment from record companies in exchange for
playing songs on air, New York's attorney general has said. US
regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began to
investigate "pay-for-play" practices in the music industry - also known
as payola - last year.

Last July music firm Sony BMG agreed to pay $10m (£5.75m) and stop
paying radio station employees to play its artists' songs.

In November Warner Music Group agreed to pay $5m (£2.87m) to settle a
"pay-for-play" investigation.

In his legal action he said he had evidence that Entercom executives
discussed strategies for supplementing radio station budgets with
payola cash from record companies. Mr Spitzer said one of Entercom's
country music stations was given a $2,500 (£1,400) laptop computer in
exchange for playing songs by artists Joe Nichols, McHayes and Liz
Phair. He said payola violated New York state civil law and radio
station licences, and sometimes resulted in the same song being played
on air every hour.

"The decisions are being made as to what to put on the airwaves based
on bribes to be paid and extracted, rather than on judgments based on
artistic merit," Mr Spitzer said.

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