shiny @ MindSay

"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

Perception, Misdirection, and Avril Lavigne

I found an article while perusing Slashdot about a new phenomenon hitting the radio industry:

June 11, 2004, 10:39AM

Paid 'ads' for song plays revive payola memories

By JEFF LEEDS

Los Angeles Times

During a single week in May, Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne's new song Don't Tell Me aired no fewer than 109 times on Nashville radio station WQZQ-FM.

The heaviest rotation came between midnight and 6 a.m., an on-air no man's land visited largely by insomniacs, truckers and graveyard shift workers. On one Sunday morning, the three-minute, 24-second song aired 18 times, sometimes as little as 11 minutes apart.

Those plays, or "spins," helped Don't Tell Me vault into the elite top 10 on Billboard magazine's national pop radio chart, which radio program directors across the country use to spot hot new tunes.

But what many chart watchers may not know is that the predawn saturation in Nashville -- and elsewhere -- occurred largely because Arista Records paid the station to play the song as an advertisement. In all, sources said, WQZQ aired Don't Tell Me as an ad at least 40 times the week ending May 23, accounting for more than one-third of the song's airplay on the station.

The Don't Tell Me campaign is part of the latest craze in record promotion, a high-pressure part of the music business in which the labels try to influence which songs reach the air.

In the late 1950s, rock's earliest days, the industry was hit by a series of payola scandals in which cash bribes were paid to disc jockeys who agreed to play certain songs. That practice was subsequently outlawed, prompting record companies to find more subtle means of currying favor with radio programmers, such as free junkets and concert tickets.

In the latest twist, it's the radio stations themselves that have been reaching out to the labels, offering to play songs in the form of ads, often in the early morning hours when there tends to be an excess inventory of airtime. The practice is legal as long as the station makes an on-air disclosure of the label's sponsorship -- typically with an introduction such as "And now, Avril Lavigne's Don't Tell Me, presented by Arista Records."

The story in full can be found at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2621567.

I'll begin by saying that I don't have a beef with Ms. Lavigne or her music, as some on Mindsay do. In fact, I very rarely listen to Top 40 radio or watch MTV anymore. I understand that there is a demand for new marketing ploys for music and its interaction with radio. But how is this any different from Payola?

And the thing is -- I really don't have much against Payola (corporations paying radio stations for airplay) either. I only assume it happens, as the big radio conglomerates are already in bed with the big record labels through concert venues and merchandise. And I've always been an advocate of "if you don't like what you hear, turn it off." However, the FCC seems to be more than happy to chase radio stations over a subjective charge of indecency for millions of dollars while making it easier to keep the big corporations in place, wedging out the little guy in the industry. Why is the FCC not taking a look at something which, in concrete terms, has been made illegal in the 1950s?

I decided to give this Avril Lavigne song a try. After enough listening to Mix 107.3 -- it was easy to find. (Of course I wouldn't download it {wink, wink} even though it's just a commercial. And besides -- if record companies are paying to hear it being played, why sue joe listener for hearing it being played?) It's not a bad song, but not something I would necessarily think of as a catchy tune running through my head.

Unless, of course, I heard it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

How does a hit song gain popularity? Radio airplay, mostly. And MTV. I know that MTV doesn't play very many videos anymore, but the backdrop of any of their shows is a pre-determined playlist of "what's hot." Once you hear a song and become more familiar with it, it sticks in your head. And on the most part, it becomes more cool. And it climbs up the charts on TRL, and escalates the same way it does in the radio industry. And if a station is supposed to play "the hits," they'll increase play rotation. People will soon be downloading -- and also buying -- the album, the t-shirt and the concert tickets.

What happens when the average listener hears Don't Tell Me over and over again? It becomes a hit. It gets requested. Obviously if it's the hot tune, it will be played more on its own. Demand goes up for Avril Lavigne's album. The single climbs the Billboard charts. Stations become obligated to play it more because it's on top. And Avril's label gets more money from their investment. (Avril does get money as well -- but the system is slanted towards the label.)

It's a study in perception. If it appears that people want the song, people want the song.

It doesn't just happen with music. An NBC show called The Apprentice was not, as some believed, a smash hit when it started. The premiere did okay, but the show's ratings fell when it was moved around off Thursdsay night. But NBC gave it a PR Injection -- This is the number one new show! (It wasn't). This is the new show everyone is watching! (It wasn't). But after that hype? It fulfilled the claims. If everyone else is watching it, it must be good. Even catch phrases are not immune to this. "Seacrest -- Out!" is pretty dumb, but if everyone's saying it....

It may come as little surprise to many of you that I'm an avid Kevin Smith fan. (Yes. Even after Jersey Girl.) In August 2001when Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was released, K and I went to see it opening night. The next day I logged onto View Askew and saw a message from Kevin -- this film was close to being number one for the weekend box office gross! He then offered to bribe us to see it again -- if we sent in ticket stubs for two different showings over the weekend, he'd send out a free movie poster. (We saw it again; I never sent in my ticket stubs). He was no fool -- he knew what the number one spot would do to his film for the next few weeks.

It came in number three - about a half a mil behind Rush Hour 2, and 1.5 million behind American Pie 2. Even though it beat all the rest of the movies that were opening that week (remember Summer Catch, anyone?) It still wasn't number one. And it didn't have much time to catch up, as September 11 happened three weeks later...

It's sad that money prevails as the method to getting to number 1 in many cases, not the people's will. Ever notice those polls in local and national magazines as to "What's the best radio station?" Do you know how many radio stations buy out copies of the magazines and have interns and assistants submitting thousands of results in order to boost them to the top? Or other radio stations which will reimburse audience copies of the magazine if they submit the survey in favor of their station? How about concerts which are sold out in a matter of minutes -- but radio stations just happen to have hundreds of tickets to give away? When you come to the concert arena, do you really see a packed house, or do you see empty seats that couldn't have been given away in enough time? The perception of a sold out concert makes people think they're missing out if they don't go or if they don't buy the album. So they purchase the overpriced tickets to the next one. Or they listen for their chance to win them on the radio.

... and then they hear that new Avril Lavigne song yet again.

10 witticisms - What now?

« All Entries » « Blog Archive » « Tags List »

Profile

shiny @ MindSay
Leave a comment

AIM: hisNameIsMike