One of the contributors to the Music Think Tank has a piece about Jango and its "pay for play" model. I found the piece relatively interesting and it made think about a few things that I hadn't thought of before.
First of all, isn't the pay for play model essentially illegal on radio? (Radio guys, I know your somewhere on this board, is that a correct statement?) I mean, isn't that payola? And wasn't that a big deal?
Secondly, the idea that this type of activity is subject to different rules than our tradtional media friends, should kind of make artists and bands think about the rules that they are playing by, right? I mean, is it worth the couple hundred bucks on Jango, for example, for a band to raise some awareness and album sales? How about when compared to what a spot schedule is on radio?
Man, it would be crazy if a band were able to geotarget the plays that they have paid for to regions where they were performing. Hmmmmmm, I smell a good old fashioned mash-up here....
Hey Dan - I finally went and checked this out after having meant to for a while. Very interesting, if a little disturbing. One commenter notes that if the process is transparent, payola is fine, and I think I agree.
Imagine if WCYY told you up front: all songs here are here because someone bought the space. You would enter that experience with a totally different expectation. As it is, people were under the impression that they were being presented with the music they were most likely to like, and instead they were getting paid ads. Hence the fraud charges and Spitzer involvement, etc.
But why isn't WCYY all paid at this point? It actually seems like an interesting idea for a radio station, much like Jango. If you were told that, each hour, you'd be presented with 10 songs that were paid placements, in exchange for zero advertisements of the normal kind, wouldn't you listen? I would. Who would bother buying song placement for utterly crappy songs that didn't fit? Well, maybe some people, but in large part the music probably wouldn't be that bad, and it would subsidize the DJs to choose songs they liked instead of having of having to fit into a particular mold in order to satisfy advertisers, etc., and make ratings.
Actually, that's probably a bad idea. But it's kind of interesting.
So, I took some time to think about that, Sam.
And my conclusion is that this is why I love these forums. I NEVER would have come up with that type of reasonable assessment. And, you raise some interesting points. I certainly could imagine a radio station who was entirely pay for play. In my imagination it sounds glorious. Because, you're right, the station would really only benefit from playing music that is actually of interest. That and there would be no, ummmm, let's call them interuptions, (but of course I'm referring to commercials. Not that they're all bad, but that's an entirely different discussion.)
You have successfully changed the tone of my opinion on this topic. I still have a lot of the same concerns. But, generally, not as negative as before.
This Topic Is Locked To Guest Posts
It's been a while since this topic was active, if you'd like to get it going again, please post as a registered member
