Commercial Radio in Three Words Pay for Play
The movie "That Thing You Do" was an interesting one to watch as an independent band. The movie takes place in the 1950's and follows the band "The Wonders" as they recorded their music in a church then pressed an album using their own money. They played at local venues, got some local momentum, and then sent their album in to radio stations.
In a particularly memorable scene, the band was sitting in their car and got excited to hear the radio station play their song. The radio play attracted a big label, and thus began their path to stardom.
Unfortunately, that only happens in movies. Commercial radio is closed to independent bands without a lot of money. Even if you have great music, you can’t get played on radio unless you pay for it. Except for those rare local-music shows, commercial radio generally plays only major labels.
This is counter to the romantic notions that people have about radio, which largely mirrors "That Thing You Do". Most people, including ourselves as we recorded our first album and tried to get it played on the radio, believe that pay-for-play was made illegal. Unfortunately, all the legislation did was create a middleman for the payola.
In the late 1950’s, getting a record played on the air was easy. Put a $100 dollar bill and a few ounces of coke in a record, and the DJ would treat you right. When the public found out about that, they became incensed. To think, the music on the radio was not being put on by the random whims of a DJ! People were paying to have it featured! Actually, at this point, the secret behind this push were the anti-rock and roll forces trying to staunch the growth of this sinful music.
This got Congress mobilized to pass legislation to control payola. The legislation said that you could pay to have your music on the air, but the radio station had to say that you paid them for it on the air before playing the song. This legislation not only failed to fix the issue, but it caused the opposite effect.
One of the primary ways that people learn about music is hearing it on the radio. Because of this, the major label needed to get their music on the radio to ensure that their recordings became a success. In order to fill this need, the Independent Promoter appeared. These “Indies,” as they are called, are paid by the labels, and they "independently" try to convince the radio station to play the song. (This is a different kind of "Indie" than an indie label or band. The names are unfortunately similar, but they couldn't be more different.)
Independent Promoters are not supposed to pay money to the radio station to influence them to spin a CD. The reality is that they do anyway. Sometimes through giving the station owners "promotions" like vacations, but other times, just giving them money under the table. You might imagine Independent promoters competing with each other, lobbying the radio station program manager to add their songs to their playlists. Instead, the Independent Promoters lock up a station and basically become the toll authority for that station. The stations and the Indies sign lucrative, exclusive contracts with each other to ensure this relationship. There's usually one Indy per station.
If you, the independent band, had a song that was played on the radio, the promoter for that station would send you a bill, probably for $800 to $2000. If you don’t pay it, they don’t play it. In reality, they never randomly play a song that was sent to them unsolicited.
While it sounds as if the Indies are working for the major labels, they really are independent of the labels. Actually, they charge quite a bit, and so labels are feeling the pain. The funny thing is that the labels, who are far from paragons of honesty, are calling this an unfair business practice, and are lobbying for a change to the laws.
For an independent band, this arrangement is especially bad. It means that no one is going to hear your music on the radio, unless you happen to have a lot of money to spend on a promotional campaign that would make them sit up and notice. The worst thing is, they hurt radio listeners most of all. No wonder radio sucks so bad nowadays.