Why is Payola Illegal? - 1 views
-
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD. on 21 Aug 15"by Alex Tabarrok on June 16, 2004 at 7:45 am in Economics, Music | Permalink Payola, making undisclosed payments to radio or tv personnel in return for the inclusion of material in programming created a big fuss in the late 1950s (it was made illegal in 1960) and again in 1986 when Al Gore investigated the "new payola." But why should payola be illegal? A song played on the radio is really an advertisement for the CD. Firms pay to advertise music on billboards and on television, why is this ok but paying to advertise on the radio not ok? Similarly, grocery stores price shelf spacing - some people object to this but it isn't illegal."