It's Getting Harder to Deny that Payola 2.0 Is Alive and Well in The Music Streaming Era

[u/StarKCaitlin]

https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/12/is-payola-alive/

[u/AutoModerator]

Remember that TrueReddit is a place to engage in high-quality and civil discussion. Posts must meet certain content and title requirements. Additionally, all posts must contain a submission statement. See the rules here or in the sidebar for details.

Comments or posts that don't follow the rules may be removed without warning. Reddit's content policy will be strictly enforced, especially regarding hate speech and calls for violence, and may result in a restriction in your participation.

If an article is paywalled, please do not request or post its contents. Use archive.ph or similar and link to that in the comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/StarKCaitlin]

Seems like the whole payola thing never really went away.. it just went digital. This article talks about how streaming platforms like Spotify might be influencing things behind the scenes, making sure certain artists get more play, even if they don't always match our tastes. It’s a good look at how this whole system affects both new artists trying to get heard and listeners who just keep hearing the same big names over and over.

[u/Lele_ → u/StarKCaitlin]

I mean I'm not surprised in the slightest. Given the almost monopoly Spotify has on the market it has become trivially easy now. Unce upon a time you needed to get hundreds of DJs, record shops, magazines etc. on board with your campaign. Today it just takes paying Spotify its dues.

[u/StarKCaitlin → u/Lele_]

Exactly. Now, it feels like the more money you have, the more you're heard, and the less chance there is for smaller artists to get a real shot

[u/fd1Jeff → u/StarKCaitlin]

Payola never went away. There was a big article in the Chicago reader in the air 2000 or so about how it was still going on and was an accepted part of the industry. Other people have confirmed this.

There has been manipulation, one way or another, of who gets radio play or whatever since the days of sheet music.

[u/happyscrappy]

It never went away. The only thing that was illegal was paying for play on radio stations, because it was against their commitments to the FCC.

So nothing else went away. And the payola for radio just went back underground. What if instead you paid DJs per play instead you sponsored a concert for the station to put their name on. They can call it their "Spring BFD concert" or whatever. The station advertises it and plays the arists because it promotes the station.

In short, payola never went away and cross promotion became the way to make illegal payola legal.

When it comes to spotify for example, all you have to do is agree to cut their per-play fees for your tracks. Then they will insert your tracks more into their "mix streams". Boom, you paid for play. And both sides are thrilled.

Once the FCC is out of the way it's hard to even envision why payola should be illegal.

It's bizarre to me that in this age of so much availability music discovery is worse than ever. Without radio and other tastemakers most people are hearing stuff within their own bubble, whether by direct personal choice or by algorithm.

[u/GratedParm → u/happyscrappy]

Honestly, even five years ago, Spotify gave me great suggestions on the one suggested list it makes every week. I had a genuinely good sampling of artists with some similar sounds to what I was listening to at that time and I was able to explore from there. I also got found new artists that did a better job of helping me explore artists than I would have (like, I was kind of pigeonholed on riotgrrl, but found Go Betty Go by accident and liked them and Spotify introduced to Otoboke Beaver and Screaming Females). And, I’d also just get some stuff I didn’t expect and I don’t know how Spotify algorithm’d to get there, but it was surprising and sometimes took me in new directions. Now, most of that weekly playlist is artists I already know of and sometimes even already listen to, and it’s most of the same artists every other week. I don’t known when they

[u/StarKCaitlin → u/GratedParm]

I feel you on that. Now you need more effort to dig and find songs that actually feels new or different. And honestly... not everyone has the time or energy to dig deep when the platform is supposed to make discovery easier.

[u/Dedalus2k]

The only people denying in the new payola are the people who are involved in it. It’s pretty well known at this point. 

[u/StarKCaitlin → u/Dedalus2k]

Yeah, it’s hard to ignore at this point. The people who benefit from it are obviously going to downplay it, but anyone who’s paying attention can see the patterns.

[u/ZenRage]

A large part of this could be prevented by enforcing antitrust laws.

When 90% of the relevant market for music is supplied by 2 providers it is much easier to collude than when the relevant market for music is supplied by 20 or 60 providers

[u/a_can_of_solo]

I really miss the MySpace/blog era of music when it felt like people were taking back some control. We now just once again have a few false choices. Spotify, apple, google maybe tidal and Deezer .

[u/AmateurishExpertise → u/a_can_of_solo]

Not an accident, it's what our system is built to produce. A few major players are easy to control.

[u/OldschoolGreenDragon]

Digitally Imported, Jazz Radio, Rock Radio, Zen Radio and Classic Radio are all apps under one package.

You're welcome.

[u/OGLikeablefellow → u/OldschoolGreenDragon]

I'd say thank you but I don't really know what you're talking about about. What's the one app called?

[u/Paraphrand → u/OGLikeablefellow]

Ari Shohat Founder and CEO Ari spent his college days obsessing over how to get other people to hear the music he likes. After refusing to air sounds of whales mixed in with crappy music during his college radio station apprenticeship, he quit and started DI.FM to stream Trance and Eurodance to the world instead.

[u/OldschoolGreenDragon → u/OGLikeablefellow]

It's the opposite: they are all apps, but a subscription gives you all of them. It's $70 a year. All apps have relatively good sorting by subgenre. Digitally Imported, the EDM app, also has DJ sets and episodic content (it also introduced me to Monstercat in 2015.)