Payola is defined in theUrban Dictionary as "What does payola mean?"

The illegal practice of paying a radio station to play a song is called payola.US law requires a radio station to tell the public if they were paid to play songs on the air.Payola can be used to influence metrics such as perceived popularity of a song, and the number of times the songs are played.The FCC considers payola to be a violation of the Sponsorship Identification Rules, which require any broadcast of paid material to include a disclosure.It was [1][2].

The combination of "pay" and "ola" is what makes the term payola.[4]

Prior to the 1930s, there was little public scrutiny of the reasoning behind a song's popularity.The advertising agencies which sponsored NBC's radio/TV show Your Hit Parade refused to reveal the specific methods that were used to determine top hits.Only general and vague statements were offered; that determining top hits was based on "readings of radio requests, sheet music sales, dance hall favorites and jukebox tabulations".The attempts to stop payola were met with silence.[5]

The prosecution of payola in the 1950s was a reaction to the traditional music establishment against newcomers.Hit radio had become a threat to the wages of song-pluggers and publisher's revenue streams.By the mid-1940s, three-quarters of the records produced in the United States went into jukeboxes.There were attempts to link payola to rock-and-roll music.Independent record companies and music publishers used payola to promote rock and roll on American radio in the 1950s.Disc jockeys were less likely to indulge in their own biases because of this practice.[8]

Phil Lind of Chicago's WAIT disclosed the amount of money involved in Congressional hearings.He took US$22,000 to play a record.[9]

The issue was featured in a 1978 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, where the morning show replacement was caught taking cocaine as a bribe to play certain records from a label with which he was associated.citation needed

The first Congressional payola investigations were carried out in 1959 by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight.10

DJ Alan Freed was fired due to his insubordinate behavior in committee hearings.Dick Clark avoided repercussions due to the fact that he had sold his interest in the music industry.[18]

Radio DJs were stripped of their authority to make programming decisions after the investigation.Station program directors were responsible for programming decisions.Instead of reaching numerous DJs, record labels only had to convince the station's program director.Independent third parties could be used to circumvent payola allegations.[19]

After being indicted in a payola scandal, DJ Frankie Crocker left New York radio, where his influence was greatest.He returned to New York after the charges were dropped and hosted MTV's video jukebox.

After the creation of music sharing websites in the late 1990s, the power of independent promoters declined and labels returned to dealing with stations directly.There is a citation needed.

Payola is used by record labels to promote their artists, and can be in the form of monetary rewards or other types of reimbursement.Paying stations can hold "meet the band" contests or require bands to play station sponsored concerts.A lesser-known band of the label may gain air time in exchange for gaining a place on a station's playlist.

A loophole in US payola laws allows labels to use a third-party or independent promoter.Station directors would be offered promotion payments by the promoter if they put their artists on the station's playlist.It was not necessary for stations to report it because it was seen as falling outside the rules.A 1986 NBC News investigation called "The New Payola" led to another round of Congressional investigations.[23]

In 2002, the office of the New York District Attorney uncovered evidence that Sony BMG executives had made deals with several large commercial radio chains.The office of the governor of New York settled out of court with three music companies.The New York State non-profit organizations that will fund music education and appreciation programs will get $10 million, $5 million and $12 million from the three conglomerates.EMI is under investigation.There needs to be an update.

Concerns about contemporary forms of payola in the US prompted an investigation by the FCC, which found that the "loophole" was still a violation of the law.In 2007, CBS Radio, Citadel, Clear Channel, and Entercom agreed to pay over $12 million in fines and accept tougher restrictions for three years.Due to increased legal scrutiny, some larger radio companies are no longer willing to have contact with independent promoter.There is a citation needed.

Clear Channel Radio launched a program that required stations to play a given song at least 150 times in order to give a new artist exposure.After listening to hundreds of songs, brand managers at the top of the Clear Channel chain choose a few favorites and send them to program directors across the country.The program directors vote on which ones they like the most."Fancy" was one of the songs that benefited from the exposure.Tinashe's "2 On" and Anthony Lewis' "Candy Rain" are two of the best songs.Tom Poleman, president of national programming platforms for the company, stated that the acts selected are based on the quality of their music and not on label pressure.

Tracks can be paid for to show up in user play-lists as "Sponsored Songs".Users can opt out of this in their account settings.30

In Mexico, South America, and some regions along the US southern border, payola is used to laundered money from illegal operations.In this practice, unknown "new artists" will suddenly appear on multiple formats and be aggressively promoted by producers of dubious origin, then disappear from the music scene or change their stage name.[32]

On September 25, 2007, the U.S. Congress held a hearing on hip hop music called From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images.According to Lisa Fager Bediako, co-founder and President of media watchdog group Industry Ears, misogynistic and racist stereotypes are present in hip hop music because record labels, radio stations, and music video channels profit from allowing such material to air.Fager stated that in that context.

Payola is an organized corporate crime that supports the lack of balanced content and degrading imagery with no consequences.36

"Old Payola Roll Blues" is a two-sided single where the promoter gets an ordinary teenager, named "Clyde Ankle", to record a song for Obscurity Records.It ends with an anti-rock song, saying hello to Jazz and Swing, and goodbye to amateur nights, including Rock and Roll.

The Payola$ chose their name during the punk explosion of the late 1970s.

A parody of the song "My Sharona" was sung to a crowd of music industry leaders during a music award ceremony.

The song "Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal" is about the practice.It is narrated from the point of view of a naive and inexperienced musician who has been coerced by a disc jockey into paying for airplay and then disappears and does not deliver on his promise.

Neil Young made fun of the practice in his 1983 album Everybody's Rockin'."This one's for you, Alan Freed, because the things they're doing today would make a saint out of you," it begins, implying that Payola corruption is bigger now than it was in the 1980s.

Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" deals with the events of 1960.

On a Washington, D.C. radio station in 1999, the disc jockeys announced that they were going to play the Lou Bega song "Mambo Number 5" because they had accepted a large amount of payola.It would not have been payola if they had actually been paid to play the song on the air.The playing of a song and acceptance of money for it to be played is not payola if the talent or station is being paid to do so.

In the film The Harder They Come, Payola was depicted as a record producer who controls the radio.The portrayal of Jimmy Cliff as an aspiring musician who is forced to sign away his rights to make a hit record depicts the role of record producers and radio DJs as a dominance - the musician ends up with no ambitions or living the same lifestyle.

A case of suspected payola was investigated by detectives George and Pat Tuesday, who formed a fictional group and created a song called "without math."Payola was ruled out as a cause of increased sales at the company.

In Season 4, Episode 6 of the CBS show Cold Case, the detectives investigated the murder of a DJ who was suspected of accepting a payola.[38]

An episode of the TV series "Johnny Comes Back" is about Doug Winner accepting money and drugs from a promoter in exchange for playing specific records.[39]