When Don Rose stood to speak Monday night to the 75 independent record label executives gathered at Los Angeles' Knitting Factory club, he had almost an embarrassment of good news.
Earlier that day, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had settled with Sony BMG Music Entertainment over charges of "payola"--essentially that the major label had paid radio stations to play its music. Independent labels had long complained that these under-the-table practices had kept their music disproportionately off the airwaves.
"I think we went from being invisible to being very quickly recognized in the market," said Peter Gordon, president of Thirsty Ear Recordings. "If you look at the confluence of factors in the market, you have the majors retreating and trying to develop a strategy, and you have indies being able to expand in the market."
With a direct effect on small labels' often-fragile bottom lines, the pay hikes from Microsoft and Apple's iTunes will be immediately welcomed. The news comes after years in which independent labels had complained about being treated as second-class citizens by the big digital music services, and Rose's A2IM had formed in part to lobby for more equity with the big labels.
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Well I just hope that this will level the playing field for the smaller labels. I figured that "payola" was involved when they played so many lame tunes by the big five studios on the radio, but no one could ever prove it until now.
most of the independent indie label's
they deserve 2 gain
honk honk!!
the only way to afford to pay all the radio stations RIAA royalty fees, is to play the "pay to play" payola crap on heavy rotation
good, i hope more indy labels profit from this, as they are very deserving. some of the best music out there isn't being heard by anybody, and hopefully this will change.
in jazz, the notes are never wrong! write that down.....well remember that then.
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