More shady business in the music industry getting aired out in public, this time its one of the biggest - payola. Hundreds of lawsuits are being filed against labels, stations, publicists, and more!

FWIW: Payola is the name given to "pay for plays", the act of employees of Radio stations getting paid to put a particular song on the airwaves over and over again. Payola is also the reason why most songs (and of course, the artists) become hits or get any radio play at all. It's a practice as old as the music biz it self. This probe has gotten so deep that there's been controversy over a lot grammy award winners since they couldn't have won that grammy without payola. Some famous hip hop DJ's have made a career off of payola money.

I was originally listing some artists who's names are mentioned in payola scams but the list was over 100 strong full of "Legends".

Name a music celeb within the last 15 years to present and you got your self a guaranteed product of payola.


Isn't the music industry fun?

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It's an ugly world. -_-

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This isnt exactly new news...

Everyone knows the majors pay for plays........

I often wonder whether they sometimes just throw a complete fucking retard artist in the mix and see just how dumb the public is by paying people to play their music and drone it into cats heads...

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RIP jono, peace out bboy.
Pardon Canada Criminal Record Pardons Services Toronto

I hope to be a product of payola ™

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Enyg, to get spins on the radio on any prime airtime, you'd prety mcuh have to be.

Nos, not new news? the whole world kinda figured that out when I said payola is as old as the music industry it self. But how many people on RV heard of it by name and new this till now?

lots of people have this "dream" of how the music business works. It's like wrestling or magic and there's always someone pulling some levers or rehearsing stunts, making it all look good.

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My guess on how the radio works is that record companies pay the radio stations to play certain songs, or keep them in their top ten or whatever.....from then on, I have no clue ™

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I agree..

Though I dont feel this is a big clincher thats really gonna expose any harsh truths or kill unrealistic expectations of people with 'dreams' of being a big time rapper...

Its kinda obvious was my main point... If record labels didnt do it most of them would go out of business due to the fact that skill is a risk.. Where as putting DJ's on your pay roll equals constant success.

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RIP jono, peace out bboy.
Pardon Canada Criminal Record Pardons Services Toronto

lol, then you'd pretty much know that how the music industry works. The shitty thing is that PAYOLA IS ILLEGAL!!! But there's enough loopholes in place to make it felt loud and clear.




If a lot of people don't know it, I wouldn't really call it "obvious". Some people still believe that they're one hit away from being a celeb. They're right...but not for the reasons they think they are.

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