The Truth About The Game - Spins & Payola ... ARTICLE

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H&R

DJ Nice // Crack City
ill o.g.
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The Truth About The Game - Spins & Payola

Would you spend $300,000 in radio promotion (payola) for a Lumidee single? According to New York State attorney general Eiliot Spitzer, Universal/Motown did once upon a time…UH OH….UH OH….UH OH….UH OH

The other day I was checking out the Top 25 BDS report archive and I noticed Bubba Sparxxx‘s “Ms New Booty” cracking the top 10 and topping out at 3000+ spins...wow. So according to current industry thinking when his album drop he should be getting a gold plaque within a couple of weeks but as of this past Thursday his album sits at 136K after 6 weeks…recouping that bread is not going to happen. Now on the flip side you have B.G. who after 7 weeks on the Soundscan charts has sold 143K but only got appx a third of the Bubba's spin count topping out at around 1100 spins a week. It’s pretty clear there’s more to the picture in getting record sales than garnering forced spins but yet we still find the labels addicted to the nipple attached to a baby bottle that got more air than milk in it.

Terms such as “grassroots marketing” and “guerilla promotions” point towards the consistent force in urban music which is called AUTHENCITY! A #1 radio record bought by the label does not guaranteed street love and while you may fool a certain percentage of the mainstream sheep, the current marketplace demands their fries oven baked, not microwave. People always holla at UC talking about the lack of artist development nowadays but it takes time, expertise and dollars to make that happen. If some of the payola money can loosen up perhaps we can return to the era where hit records are born not made.

Back in the B.N. (Before Napster) Era, the labels could get away with pouring millions in money and gifts into the hands of radio promo individuals who could secure a prime time slot lock because the consumer had limited choices when it came to hearing music. No leaked tracks on the net to worry about and the Mixtape game was still a street only phenomenon. So all the labels had to do was focus on coming up with the right record that can fit the “radio format”. The mainstream audience became very comfortable with being told (programmed) what they thought was hot and if played enough times in your eardrums you may actually like it and go purchase the record. Nowadays the landscape has changed due to the emergence of interactive technology which has bred the consumer to go after what they want instead of waiting to be told what they should have. From movie channels on your cable TV, to I Pods, satellite networks, HDR, online radio streams and illegal downloads; the days of your Hot97 being your only option are long gone. Simply put…the choice is now yours! (Shout to Black Sleep).

Now the importance of commercial radio as the number #1 promotional outlet is indisputable so that’s not the issue. The question is whether the industry will bring a new approach in utilizing the radio airwaves to encourage record sales without becoming a slave to a payola system that the labels started but has becoming increasingly ineffective in comparison to the amount of money being asked to play ball. When dollars over public opinion of a song becomes the deciding factor in how many times you will hear a record then everybody loses including the label that see their profit margins vanish with mediocre sales. More than ever music fans are “discovering” the next fresh crop of artists and in turn letting it been known thru interactive mediums such as message boards, blogs and dollars spent on mixtapes. Having the “streets” dictate what they want and then making the push towards radio insures a bigger bang for your buck.
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Written By Big Dev
 
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