p2pnet - rss feed: Sony BMG execs knew of payoffs
p2p news / p2pnet: Sony BMG says bribery and payola allegations levelled by the Los Angeles Times at Columbia vp Charlie Walk and his boss, Sony Music Label Group US chief executive Don Ienner, are untrue and aimed at “good and honest people”.
The office of New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer investigated Sony BMG and found, “contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees”.
Spitzer said these took the form of:
- Outright bribes to radio programmers, including expensive vacation packages, electronics and other valuable items;
- Contest giveaways for stations’ listening audiences;
- Payments to radio stations to cover operational expenses;
- Retention of middlemen, known as independent promoters, as conduits for illegal payments to radio stations;
- Payments for “spin programs,” airplay under the guise of advertising.
Subsequently, Sony BNG “agreed” to make a $10 million payment for distribution by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to New York State that would “inure to the benefit of the residents of the State of New York by funding programs aimed at music education and appreciation”.
When Sony BMG Music Entertainment settled with Spitzer, he said the corruption reached “the very top of the industry,” says the LA Times.
Spitzer “stopped short of naming names” but, “an inquiry by The Times has found that Spitzer was told that the trail led to two of the company’s highest-ranking executives and some of the most powerful men in music,” says the newspaper.
“Two sources interviewed by The Times said they’d told Spitzer’s investigators that Ienner and Walk tolerated and condoned pay-for-play” and, “A third source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation confirmed this.
And, ” according to three former Sony BMG executives and a fourth source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation, in the months leading up to the settlement, investigators made clear to representatives of Sony BMG that evidence showed that Ienner and Walk knew about pay-for-play,” the story states.
But, “In response to questions from The Times, Paul Gardephe, a lawyer who negotiated with Spitzer on behalf of Sony BMG, said in a statement: “There is absolutely no evidence that Ienner or Walk knew of any payola activities. If the attorney general’s office had such proof, the settlement would have been dramatically different.”
And a Sony BMG spokesman is quoted as saying, “It’s unfortunate that malicious gossip and false allegations by anonymous sources are now being used to damage the reputations of good and honest people.”
Through their lawyers, Ienner and Walk declined to answer questions for this article. Attorneys for both men denied that either one condoned or participated in pay-for-play, says the LA Times, also stating that in all, it, “interviewed seven former and current associates of Ienner and Walk who confirmed what sources say Spitzer’s investigators had discovered.
“These sources - two current and five former Sony Music or Sony BMG employees - said that during the last decade they observed conversations in which one or both men acknowledged or condoned exchanging improper gifts for increased airplay of certain songs.
“All seven sources worked alongside Ienner and Walk when the executives were in their current positions or in previous leadership roles at Sony-owned Columbia Records. Two of those sources left the company after clashing with Ienner or Walk; four sources describe themselves as friends of one or both executives.
“Many people interviewed for this article requested anonymity because they feared incriminating themselves or jeopardizing their jobs within the insular music industry.”
Meanwhile, Spitzer is after Sony BMG again, this time over the First4Internet rootkit DRM spyware scandal.
(Thanks, Brian)
Also read:-
Los Angeles Times - Hitmakers Implicated in ‘Pay for Play’ Plans, December 4, 2005
investigated Sony BMG - Spitzer on Sony BMG scandal, July 28, 2005
DRM spyware scandal - Spitzer goes after Sony BMG, November 29, 2005
December 7th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
An top executive that doesn’t know where the apparent sucess comes from, whether payola, cooked book or else, doesn’t know that his ideas/policies are or not working and should be fired.
A top executive who finds out his subordinates are crooks because the justice department told him so should be fired, for not figuring it out himself.
Sony shareholders are being thrashed too by incompetents.
December 7th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
Next bs line from the prez: We didnt know anything about Sony BMG rootkit DRM spyware. As Nixon said I repeat Iam not a crook. I swear
December 7th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
Ah, been waiting a couple of days for this story to break here. Sort of suprised it is just now surfacing.
The Sony Executives were “rewarded” by lateral moves into other positions. Now that’s a heck of a thing when it is done with approval at the very top of the corporation. Sony sees nothing wrong with bending or even violating a few laws here and there to get where they are wanting to be. Again the actions speak louder than words ever can.
If you want to see the evil of corporations acting in their own self-interests then all you have to do is look at this and the rootkit and other DRM anticopy issues to realise that these corporations are in it up to the top of their pointy little heads.
Sony maybe the ones in the news, that doesn’t mean they were all by theirselves. By admission, First4Internet has already admitted that all the cartel were their customers. In otherwords each and every one of them not only knew of this style of hiding problems and obtaining info but could have released it at anytime. I would suspect had Sony’s little ploy went off without a hitch then computer users around the world would be dealing with these “DRM” glitches.
You will notice that any statements by Sony has been most carefully worded. No where in them is the words “recall”, “we’re sorry”, or even “we made a mistake” part of the message. Sony at this point reminds me of a snake oil salesman, complete with prepared speech, still hyping their product when every one around them that has been keeping up with this debacle are cleaning their ears to see if it still sounds the same the second time as it did on that very first unbelievable time.
Thank you but no thank you Sony, you have done us enough with all that friendly help the first time you tried. I still haven’t heard anything from Sony about the phone home feature. Strangely, it doesn’t exist as far as any admissions by Sony goes. So just what are you doing with that information you gathered so stealthly on your customers?
December 8th, 2005 at 12:26 am
No company will ever say sorry. Bigbiz lawyers are convinced that by a company saying the “S” word the company is admitting wrongdoing and liability, which would increase the risk of lawsuits succeeding against them.
So in order to protect shareholders from the negative impact on earnings that massive lawsuits would bring, companies will always deny any wrongdoing. Always.
December 8th, 2005 at 1:39 am
“No company will ever say sorry.”
Which means that their behavious is not based on the human model.
That is why they are willing to sue chldren for sharing, an act of human goodwill.
December 9th, 2005 at 1:36 am
It is time for the United States Department of Justice to take action. Mr. Gonzales and his purveyors of torture need to wake up and smell the rotten stench of corruption and graft everywhere around them!
Now is the time to send your faxes and emails to the DoJ, with copies to your Congressional delegation. Frankly, it is painfully obvious to the entire world, at this point, that serious felonies are being committed by people who are representing themselves to be honest, law-abiding citizens (sounds a bit like the MOB, doesn’t it!)
I genuinely hope that Ms. Santangelo is successful in her counter-suit against Sony and that she succeeds in making the ROCOH allegations stick.
Every morning, as I read the Op-Ed page and the watered down news items, my blood begins to boil. History is a hobby of mine, but I cannot recall studying any time or era in the history of this great Republic where flagrant, open, brazen corruption was more rife than right now! Even the historical scandals, such as the graft of Tammany Hall, the Robber Barons, Teapot Dome, Watergate, Irangate, and so many others pale by comparison with the widespread criminality in the upper echelons of business and government.
Andrew Jackson was one of the most unabashedly candid violators of the Laws passed by Congress then upheld upheld by the Supreme Court after Jackson appealed the constitutionality of the laws that speficially prohibited him from taking certain actins or engaging in certain affairs. Ronald Reagan and George Dubya make Old Hickory look like a timid juvenile delinquent. The corruption of the Warren Harding Administration, by comparison to that of George 43, was positively angelic. The way some Chief Executives and some Congresses have turned a blind eye to wrong doing can be brushed aside as mere child’s play when one takes a less-than-casual look at what is going on in this country, and has been building ever since the early 1980’s when Billy and the Boyz in Redmond started planning their nefarious schemes to become multi-trillionaires.
The problem we face, in this day and age, is that these villains openly admit what they are doing — then adamantly insist that they are in the RIGHT by doing it!!!
Adolf Hitler, himself, was not so open and above board about his intentions to subvert the rights of man. He, at least, used thinly-disguised ruses, such as blaming the Reichstag fire on the Communists. Ronald Reagan, when caught with his hand in the cookie jar denied that there ever was a cookie jar for his hand to be found in. Then, when shown the cookie jar, he couldn’t remember ever having seen a cookie jar, nor could he recall ever sticking his hand into one. Now, there you go again, accusing him of dying his hair and using makeup, when he has repeatedly told you that he does not dye his hair or use rouge on his cheeks. He does not use makeup, but will veto any spending law that carries a rider making it illegal to do so.
But I digress. It is extremely unlikely that we will ever get the DoJ to investigate the money laundering schemes of certainn Congressmen; it is too much to expect that an Honorable Senator would be accused of Insider Trading; and it doesn’t make sense to investigate high-placed personnel in the administration of the man who gave you your job as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Friends. Fellow would-be guardians of the American heritage based on honest values and a genuine respect for the rule of non-oppressive law: I implore you to take just a moment to fax or email the DoJ, insisting that some action be taken to at least give the impression that our government is still based on the rule of law. It might be too late. More than likely, far too much money has already changed hands; too many allegiances have already been bought and sold.
If you feel that you should support your government, right or wrong, I ask you to take ten or fifteen minutes to read the Declaration of Independence (it should take that long if you genuinely read it and pay attention to what it says…)
But DO SOMETHING.