FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and Don Rose, acting president for the American Association Of Independent Music (A2IM), met April 18 to discuss drafting a set of "best practices" or "rules of engagement" to curb payola between major labels and the conglomerate-owned radio stations. After Rose and Daniel Glass (the former president of Artemis Records)met with the FCC Comissioner, Rose told Billboard Radio Monitor, "we walked out feeling like we were heard." A2IM's mission is to level the playing field in the music market for indie labels, who lack the funding of the majors. Payola, the paying off of radio stations in return for radio play, as well as "independent promotion," wherein the stations are payed by third-party promoters, affect the amount airplay artists on independent labels can get. These injustices undermine the chances of small artists being able to compete. The key, Rose told the Monitor, to having a fair working relationship between small labels and artists and the radio industry is "access," which entails that "any record company, big or small, has access to radio." Also necessary is "transparency," meaning that "any sort of financial aspect is disclosed by this set of best practices." Adelstein told the Monitor of the meeting with A2IM that a "central point of stamping out payola is to improve the ability of local and independent artists to get heard on radio. Musicians, listeners and the radio industry itself all benefit when the best songs win, rather than the ones with the most money behind them." "Amen, brother!" was Rose's response. In addition to these rules being drafted, an FCC investigation has already begun on some of the top media conglomerates—CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Citadel—concerning their engagement with these illegal practices. www.a2im.org
