Payola

Payola is an undisclosed payment or inducement offered to promote music, especially by securing radio airplay. It makes promotion appear to be an independent programming choice.

Radio airplay: The broadcast transmission of recorded music over radio stations. Payola seeks to secure this exposure through undisclosed incentives.
Tin Pan Alley: The New York music-publishing district associated with the commercial production of popular songs. Song publishers used paid performances and other incentives to build demand for songs.
Alan Freed: An American radio disc jockey and promoter associated with popularizing rhythm and blues and early rock and roll. His career ended after he was implicated in the 1950s payola investigations.
Sponsorship identification: The disclosure that a broadcast communication is sponsored or paid for by an outside party. Identifying sponsorship reveals the financial relationship payola conceals.
Streaming manipulation: The use of artificial or deceptive methods to inflate music streams or influence platform metrics. It raises a related question: when does hidden promotion become deceptive manipulation?
Record promotion: The marketing of recorded music to broadcasters, media, and audiences. Payola exploits promotional relationships between record companies and broadcasters.
Plugging (music): The practice of promoting songs through repeated performances, often by singers or musicians hired for that purpose. Paid song plugging preceded radio-era payola and established music promotion as a business.
Dick Clark: An American television and radio host whose career included the music program American Bandstand. The payola investigations scrutinized his industry ties, though he avoided prosecution.
Advertising: Paid communication intended to promote a product, service, or idea to an audience. Ordinary advertising is presented as paid promotion rather than disguised editorial choice.
Playlist pitching: The practice of presenting music to playlist curators for possible inclusion in their selections. Paid or undisclosed pitching tests how sponsorship rules apply outside traditional radio.

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