UMG goes down in bribery case
p2p news / p2pnet: Big Four Organized Music cartel member Vivendi Universal will pay $12 million to get New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer off its back.
Vivendi Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG are all being investigated by Spitzer as well as federal authorities on price fixing and payola charges.
Vivendi’s Universal Music Group used bribes and gifts to, “gain airplay for songs that included records by Nick Lachey, Ashlee Simpson , Brian McKnight , Big Tymers, and Lindsay Lohan, Spitzer said,” states the Associated Press, quoting Spitzer as saying UMG had, “illegally provided radio stations with financial benefits to obtain airplay and boost the chart position of its songs”.
“UMG has obtained airplay for its songs through such deceptive and illegal practices as bribing radio station employees, on occasion, to play UMG songs, providing a stream of financial benefits to radio stations, to assist with stations’ overhead costs or to provide promotional support, on condition that UMG records receive airplay,” Spitzer alleged in court papers filed with the ’settlement’.
UMG was also accused of “engaging in fraudulent call-in campaigns to increase airplay,” says AP.
California’s Universal, the world’s largest recording company, will pay the cash to charity together with $100,000 to cover the cost of the investigation, and promised to adopt reforms, Spitzer says in another AP story.
But as is normal in cases where one or other of the Big Four is caught red-handed, UMG said it wasn’t its fault.
It, “didn’t admit guilt,” instead claiming, “various employees and independent promoters acting on behalf of the company” engaged in the illegal practice, Spitzer said.
Sony has similarly settled for $10 million and Warner Music went for a $5 million settlement.
That leaves EMI.
Meanwhile, the Big Four continue to accuse their own customers of being thieves and criminals in specious p2p file sharing claims, a detail ignored by the mainstream media.
Also See:
Associated Press – Spitzer, UMG Settle Payola Probe for $12M, May 11, 2006
CBC – Universal will pay $12M to settle payola case, May 11, 2006
AP story – Universal Music settles payola probe, May 12, 2006
similarly settled – Spitzer on Sony BMG scandal, July 27, 2005
went for – Spitzer nails Warner Music, November 23, 2005
May 12th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Cost of doing illegal things by Vivendi Universal:
-12,000,000.00
Revenue colected from doing illegal things by Vivendi Universal:
+100,000,000.00*
Net Profit:
+88,000,000.00
***
As long as the net profit is a positive number, they’ll keep pulling this crap on us. * I made up that number, but I wouldn’t be suprised if it were like that high. 12 million, what a joke!
May 12th, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Chump change.
May 12th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
NY attorney general will tout that $12 million figure as a major victory for the consumer, and for musicians, and blah, blah, blah. The only problem is that’s change between the seat cushions for UMG. That 12 million is just part of their cost of doing business.
They’ll make it back suing the people who made them that money.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:23 am
radio stations arent owned by the govt… this is smelly but definitely not bribery