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Songs distributed through Vivendi's Universal Music Group have moved up the charts after a radio chain was paid to play the tunes as part of commercials in an ad program that New York state officials say is used to trick radio programmers. The news raises questions about how the payola settlements during the past year will be enforced and whether music executives will take advantage of loopholes.
The ad purchases come five months after Universal paid $12 million to settle accusations by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, that it bribed radio programmers in exchange for airplay, writes The New York Times.
The settlement stated that Universal, and entities "directed or controlled" by Universal, were prohibited from buying ads for the purpose of misleading the independent services that compile airplay data. The company must provide written notice of ads that contain more than 60 seconds of song.
The attorney general's office said it was "aware of the possible violation."
A March lawsuit against Entercom said that the company marketed a program called CD Preview to manipulate a song's performance on industry charts. Batches of "spins,'' or plays of a song, could be purchased for $1,000 to $3,500, and the program generated more than $2 million a year for the company, the lawsuit said.
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