Infinity Broadcasting Says FUCK YOU To Promoters Paid By Record Labels

This is great news! Infinity Broadcasting is one of the biggest radio chains in the country. It is owned by Viacom. They don't own any stations here in Springfield, but they own WXRT in Chicago. Those guys play everything from Wilco and David Byrne, to Camper Van Beethoven and the Pretenders. There are a couple of other broadcasting companies who have already flipped promoters the bird: Clear Channel Communications (who own WCVS & WFMB) and Cox Radio. So... hopefully other chains will follow their lead. Maybe this will level the playing board for some of you Indie artists out there. For those of you who are clueless as to what I'm so excited about, this is the deal....

Basically, big recod labels with Big A$$ bank accounts can spend enormous amounts of $$$ to promote their artists new songs / albums. Part of this budget includes "promoters" who basically pay (read: bribe) radio stations to obtain copies of their stations playlists. The amount of $$$ the radio stations get is generally in direct proprtion to how many of the promoter's songs are on said list. In this way, these "promoters" and the record companies they work for have been able to duck around a federal statute that says that radio stations can't take bribe money to play songs without disclosing this info to the public.

Here is the link to the article in the NY Times: Radio Chain to Cut Ties to Promoters Paid by Labels