There’s been a ton of buzz all over the place regarding this “payola” settlement between Eliot Spitzer and Sony BMG, and I expect that over the next few weeks/months, more record labels and radio companies will come forth with similar settlements and also offer up equally damning “evidence” for the public to eat up and become outraged over.

Quite frankly, I’m surprised that there’s such a huge uproar over this.  Folks, this is the way business is done—and I’m not just talking about in the music industry.  If Eliot Spitzer really wants to uncover some evil truths about payola, maybe he should look within our own government, where PACs and lobbyists get companies to buy off government officials on a daily basis.  You know why prescription drugs cost so much?  It’s because drug companies throw trips and great tickets to expensive events at doctors all the time.  If you work at a big enough company, they’ve probably given gifts to clients in order to woo them to sign on with your company. 

Yes, record labels routinely take radio people out for meals and to events.  It’s calling building a relationship, as I’m sure people in your company have routinely taken their clients out—and yet you’re not being hit with multimillion-dollar settlements or the scorn of the public.  As one guy who was targeted by this payola investigation said to one of my co-workers yesterday, “Anytime I took a trip, it had nothing to do with airplay of a specific song or artist; what those labels chose to write these trips off against, it’s up to them to explain. In the business world, if a billion-dollar company offers you tickets or hotel, do people really ask, ‘Where is this money coming from?’ No, they just accept.”

And in the end, a hit is a hit is a hit, and no amount of radio programmers pushing airplay is going to make the public like a song any more, no matter what they were given to play it.