NCJ Number
158861
Date Published
1994
Length
288 pages
Annotation
This book traces the history of a common practice in the music industry, that of giving money or some other consideration to someone in the expectation that the recipient will in return give more exposure, such as extra plays on a radio station, to the payola giver's musical creation.
Abstract
Although the term "payola" is sometimes used to describe bribery or corrupt practices in almost any industry, the term was coined over half a century ago to describe the music industry practice of paying people a sum of money to promote a particular piece of music, with the expectation that it would be heard by a wider audience, leading to increased sales and profits. Payola is not and never has been illegal. Laws passed against payola in the early 1960s did not make the practice illegal; only the failure to report payola was made illegal. While payola was present before 1909, that year's compulsory licensing feature of the copyright law revision likely led to a greater degree of payola. The format of payola has changed over the years since it first appeared in 1880, but the pressure that fueled its emergence remains the same: more songs are produced than can be heard by the public. A song that fails to get airplay cannot compensate by running advertisements in magazines or on billboards. A song that fails to get airplay simply does not get heard. The book contains a history of payola through the years 1880 to 1991, and descriptions of attempts to curb the practice. Notes, bibliography, index