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Payola, Rootkits, and Deceit...brought to you by Sony Music
It's always been thought that the music industry was corrupt but solid nail-in-the-coffin proof was absent...just stories from numerous artists that got bent over the railing after signing a record contract. This year it all changed as the public collectively took a big chomp out of the apple, so shiny and new, and spat out a mouthful of maggots. What am I talking about? Sony BMG, the leader of the Rat Pack.
1) Payola
Payola has been around since radio began playing modern rock and roll (the 60's) and record companies realized how important radio play was to their record sales. It was difficult back then, record labels had to bribe each individual disc jockey to get their tunes played.
In today's world of concentrated media conglomerates payola became simplified. Did you know that companies owning more than 40 radio stations control 75% of the radio market? Of those large conglomerates Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting control over 40% of the airwaves in the US! Nowadays, record companies (using 'independent' consultants) merely bribe the radio conglomerates at the executive level circumventing all the legwork required to contact individual disc jockeys. Both Clear Channel and Infinity were implicated in a multi-million dollar payola scheme. Eliot Spitzer, New York's Attorney General, recently reached a multi million dollar settlement with Sony BMG. He is now investigating payola deals between other major media companies and record labels. The point being, this is not an isolated problem, it is pervasive and runs rampant throughout the industry.
As an aside, if you ever doubt the clout wielded by the executive level of companies such as Clear Channel Communications, just remember the plight of the Dixie Chicks who were effectively banned from over 20% of the airwaves merely for speaking out against George Bush and the Iraq war.
Source: Making Sense of Payola
2) Fake Movie Critics
To make someone like shitty music you have to blast it at the listeners until their defenses are worn down and they become mindless zombies as insipid lyrics and vapid jingles push out all higher brain function. Solution: Payola.
So what do you do if your movies suck? Well...Sony's solution was to hire fake movie critics to give them glowing reviews! That way, those consumers diligent enough to research a movie prior to shelling out 20 bucks to see it will be deceived into thinking it is good. Such was the case of "David Manning" a Sony invented non-entity that gave gushing reviews of Sony movies.
Source: Was there, the bastards moved the article
3) Rootkits
What do you do when people prefer pirating your roster of artists instead of buying over-priced CDs? No, you don't invest in an artist roster that creates original music or lower your prices so that people are willing to pay! You put spyware on your customers' audio CDs!
You tell your consumer that, in order to play the music on a PC you have to install a nifty little Sony Music player. You don't tell them that you will also install hidden files (rootkits) on their PC that, if decloaked and subsequently removed, will stop your CD player from working! You don't tell them that hackers the world over could possibly take advantage of said rootkit to install viruses in order to erase your harddrive or to turn your computer into a spam zombie.
Finally, when the shit does hit the fan and people find out about your questionable and duplicitous activities, you release a utility to remove said rootkits and DRM (Digital Rights Management) software but require that they disclose their identity and email address circumventing their right to privacy.
The greatest humour in all of this? The CDs that used this form of DRM software were ALL available on file trading networks anyway. In other words it failed utterly in its goal to stop piracy and succeeded admirably in punishing the very users that Sony should be bending over backwards to please and reward...their own consumers...the ones willing to shell out money for music!!
Conclusion
So what have I learned from this episode? I personally have learned to boycott any and all Sony BMG products. That's right! No more Celine Dion or Christine Aguilera for me...hahaha. That'll be a really hard one to do without given that I'm such an enormous fan. Does sarcasm come through in written form?
I have also learned that music ends up on the radio because someone with a lot of money paid to have it there. It is not there because of merit. Everyone should consider this as they go out to buy their next Celine Dion record - are you buying it because it's good or are you buying it because you've been bombarded with it, ad nauseum, on the radio, on the TV, on the Internet, until your good sense crumbles under the weight of a multi million dollar advertising campaign? On a personal level, even without payola it is difficult for a new artist (like Ours To Destroy) to get their music heard...with payola it is next to impossible as major labels lock up the airwaves with illegal bribes. Money talks.
Finally, in the words of Bob Dylan, "The Times they are a-changing." With all this bad press maybe, just maybe, people are starting to wake up to just how corrupt the record industry truly is. From horribly one-sided recording contracts, to payola scams, to policies that abuse their customers, record labels have truly demonstrated that they have but one concern on their minds and it ain’t music. It is the bottom line!
Anyone who buys music can help bring about change. How? By boycotting major label music and buying indie! There's awesome music out there, if only you take the time to dig for it and avoid being spoon fed. That's where sites like Music Freedom come in.