jazzbo51
Member
When I worked in radio promotions in the '80s, I never saw direct payments to radio stations from the labels. However, in many cases, you would need to hire an independent promoter and pay them to influence airplay or else many artists (especially up and coming) didn't stand a chance...and it wasn't cheap. As for promotional records, up until the aforementioned 'influencers' became so prominent, they were a major conduit to DJs who were allowed to format their own shows. Tons of free records were given to radio and record stores to distribute amongst the staff, who might hear something they liked and pass that on to their listeners. Of course there were free tickets to shows, open bar tabs, dinners, etc., but that's another story.To the best of my knowledge, which is miniscule, radiomstations and record labels once were set up so the labels paid the station personell to play their music. Somehow that was called “payola” and a bunch of people changed their careers. After that, it seemed like it was more of a free advertising setup, where the stations got free stuff to fill the airtime anf the labels and artists got free publicity. I recall seeing more than a few “rsdio promotion copy” labels on records.
I know of a college radio station that was streaming along with their broadcast, and the streaming royalties, along with the record-keeping requirements, convinced them to stop.