Quote:
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Last week, Blackground Records, a Universal-distributed label, purchased ads that enabled the song, “Too Little, Too Late” by the teenage singer JoJo to climb to the No. 2 position on the nation’s mainstream pop radio chart. Before that, a representative for Nickelback, a rock band on Roadrunner Records, a Universal-distributed label, paid for ads that inflated the performance of the song “Far Away.” The tune ranked as the week’s No. 1 song.
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Hey guys. If I’m reading the NY Times article correctly, the airplay tricking radio ads that were bought for TLTL and Faraway appear to be the only proof of payola. If that is the case, the article states that TLTL’s ads were bought last week and the Faraway ads were bought before that, which shows that the songs were already top 3 hits prior to the add purchases. Those songs might not have gotten to #1, but top 3 was a given. But it hasn’t been determined if these add purchases have violated Universal’s agreement with the attorney general due to a prior payola settlement. It doesn’t seem to be a big deal, because the attorney general’s representative’s response to the NYTimes was “that they’re aware of Universal’s possible agreement violation, and will look into it. Lol.
By the way Hinder’s label is distributed by Universal just like Jojo and Nickleback. But Hinder wasn’t cited in the article.
