Record Companies Subpoenaed by Eliot Spitzer
The Recording Industry Association of America made a big splash in recent months by suing children for downloading music off the Internet. The corporate lawyers said the kids were stealing the bread out of the mouths of the musicians. They almost broke their arms patting themselves on the back for being such good corporate citizens. Imagine the satisfaction in some quarters upon hearing that New York’s uncaped crusader, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, served subpoenae on some record companies.
It would appear that Mr. Spitzer, who longs to succeed three-term Governor George Pataki, wonders how a song gets onto a radio station. EMI, Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music have been ordered to turn over contracts invoices and such as part of an inquiry into the matter. Mr. Spitzer’s action had immediate effect – stock selling. In London, EMI closed down 1.36% on Friday. Across the Channel in Paris, Vivendi Universal, which owns Universal, closed 2.24% lower. In New York, Vivendi Universal closed down 3.03%; Time Warner owner of Warner Music, lost 0.55%, and Sony took a lighter 0.12% hit.
Back in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, there was a charming custom called “payola.” In essence, a record company would pay a DJ or station manager a certain amount of money in exchange for getting a record played. This commission, emolument or consideration amounted to a bribe, and it is now illegal in the US.
So record companies, ever the stalwart supporters of the law, quit paying DJs and station managers. Now, they pay independent promoters to help them get their tunes on the publicly owned airwaves. These independent promoters pay the stations an annual fee for “advance copies of play lists,” according to a report in the New York Times, which for once wasn’t beaten on a story in its home town by the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times or the Wall Street Journal. The play list excuse seems to have buried the needle on Mr. Spitzer’s bovine excrement detector. Payola by another name still stinks.
If there is a suit, and if the record companies are found guilty, they will have to make restitution. After all, these are the guys who make the Billboard charts the pitiful lists that they are. They will owe the music fans of America and the world big time. Perhaps a settlement might include an end to lawsuits against kids whose real crime is not paying for a song that’s in the charts because a bribe put it there.
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