4 August 2005Justin Schlosberg
Last week Sony BMG, one of four major record companies who control over 80% of the music industry, admitted to bribing DJ’s and radio stations in a bid to get their songs on the air. Investigators uncovered written evidence of plots to shower DJ’s and programmers with everything from plasma TV screens to family vacations in return for guaranteed radio play. One employee was reported to have asked a DJ “whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen”.
But this story is much more than juicy filler for entertainment industry gossip pages. It’s a glaring example of global corporate media companies tightening their grip on the airwaves, barring entry to anyone without a major label-sized wallet. Make no mistake – Sony is not thought to be alone in this practice and eyes are turning towards their oligopoly partners. According to New York State Attorney General Eliot Spritzer “Pay-for-play is driving the industry and it is wrong”. It’s ironic that an industry that has spent billions trying to combat piracy, should be caught so blatantly with its legal pants down, quite literally stealing the airwaves.
But the problem is not just with the copyright owners. Since the US Telecommunications Act passed in 1996, Clear Channel (who were implicated in the scandal) has bought over 1200 radio stations. That’s thirty times more than the legal limit before 1996, originally imposed to protect radio diversity. Since then, Clear Channel-owned stations have been accused of widespread censorship (axing Howard Stern after a bit of Bush bashing on air), dropping artists from their play lists who don’t use Clear Channel to promote their concerts, and homogenizing their content to such a degree that the same shows are aired on multiple stations using ‘voice tracking’ to suggest they are hosted by local DJ’s. In an act of reverse bribery (blackmail?), one Clear Channel programmer sent an email to a Sony executive asking for a laptop in exchange for playing the new record by Bow Wow.
In reality, global media corporations collude with each other more than they compete. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), when its not spending time suing a 12 year old girl (as it did last year – enforcing a $2000 fine for file sharing), is ranked as one of the top industry lobbying groups in Washington. Little wonder that in recent years, merger after merger after acquisition has sailed through the regulatory bodies on both sides of the Atlantic. And the Clear Channel monster did little to put off UK lawmakers who enacted the Communications Bill in 2003, effectively mimicking the US equivalent seven years earlier.
Ultimately it’s the ordinary consumer who bears the cost, not only through inflated CD prices. As in all media industries, conglomeration has a marked effect on content, reducing it to the bottom line, low-risk and uncontroversial. When EMI axed 1500 jobs and cut its roster by a quarter last year, the chairman admitted it was mostly ‘niche’ artists that were culled. Whether its manifest in trivial tabloid headlines, ‘voice tracking’ or identical sounding boy bands, the principle is the same. Not surprising kids are spending their pocket money on computer games. At least they’re challenging.
Justin Schlosbergis a professional musician and writer, part of one of the only self-sufficient rock bands in the UK (www.hellisforheroes.net). He runs a small independent label (www.augustspiescollective.org) and write extensively for our various newsletters and websites on everything from tour diaries to independent media activism.
