Pribek

An interesting post over at Hypebot about Jango, a music site that is offering artists a chance to buy airplay…

For $30 for 1,000 plays, indie artists get airplay to fans of etablished artists of their choice. If a band’s fans say they remind them of U2; then that band can now target airplay to U2 fans only. A display ad running alongside encourages listeners to rate the song or become a fan. In addition to targeting by music taste, artists can also target listeners by age, gender and location….

…Internet broadcasts are not regulated by the FCC in the same way as over the air broadcasters; so what Jango is doing is perfectly legal. But is it right? In a fractured and cluttered media landscape should artist’s pay to get played? How will Jango’s audience react to the new music by artists they’ve never heard of.

Any time something like this comes along, people get to throwing the word “Payola” around.

A few thoughts about payola;

Payola enabled a guy like Sam Phillips to break an artist like Johnny Cash. It wasn’t all bad. If you had an act that was outside of what the big labels would be interested in, you could go around to DJs with whiskey and women and give your horse a shot in the race.

After payola was outlawed, there were still a lot of DJs partaking. That didn’t really end until large corporations started buying stations and taking the play list out of the DJ’s hands and homogenizing the formats. But, that didn’t end payola, it still exists. There are a ton of above board and below board methods to get around it. The little guy isn’t able to get in the game, that’s all.

So, addressing the questions posted above about what Jango is doing.

“what Jango is doing is perfectly legal. But is it right?”

I don’t see any harm in it; it’s advertising. Jango runs the risk of throwing a bunch of crap out there and turning off their audience but, that’s another matter. Here’s a question; What would stop a record company from buying a bunch of spots on a major TV network and drilling some new song in to the public psyche by hammering it in to their brains the same way a breakfast cereal company does? The answer is money. People think that the music business is bigger than it is and they always have.

In a fractured and cluttered media landscape should artist’s pay to get played?

Sure, why not, give it a try. But, you have to look at it realistically. 1,000 plays is no big deal. 1,000 plays=1,000 impressions.
For perspective, if you got a song played on a big station in a big market, just one time, that could be a half million impressions. And one spin on a big time radio station isn’t going to feed the bulldog. If you had 30 spins on each of 50 stations in good markets, then you might make a dent.

How will Jango’s audience react to the new music by artists they’ve never heard of?

I suspect that Jango will run in to the same wall that all internet advertising does; you have to get them to click. But with something like this, you need them to click and come back for more. So, it all depends on the crap quotient. If the listener clicks a few times and they get bad songs, poorly recorded and performed, they won’t keep clicking.