[BC] Sony admits payola

[Reader]

To disguise a payoff to a radio programmer at KHTS in San Diego, Epic 
Records called a flat-screen television a "contest giveaway." Epic, part of 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/business//redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=SNE>Sony 
BMG Music Entertainment, used the same gambit in delivering a laptop 
computer to the program director of WRHT in Greenville, N.C. - who also 
received PlayStation 2 games and an out-of-town trip with his girlfriend.


In another example, a Sony BMG executive considered a plan to promote the 
song "A.D.I.D.A.S." by Killer Mike by sending radio disc jockeys one Adidas 
sneaker, with the promise of the second one when they had played the song 
10 times.

The gifts, described in a $10 million settlement with Sony BMG that was 
announced yesterday by New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, 
exemplify what Mr. Spitzer called a broad effort by the recording industry 
to curry favor with radio station programmers in exchange for their 
promises to play specific songs




more at.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/business/26music.html?




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