Payola is an illegal method used by record labels and independent artists to induce constant broadcasting and promotion of their songs by paying radio presenters to air their songs. such kinds of music are constantly played just like breaking news and the artists of the songs are always a subject of discussion on the radio station.
According to the United State of America law, the radio station airing a song should let people know that the song is a sponsored song as this will give listeners the right decisions when they want to rate the music.
Payola is a virus that keeps growing and might not stop
As the music industry keeps growing it gets infected more by payola that some artists might not survive if strict rules are set to stop to regulate this sweet viral infection in the music industry.
There are songs that are not really interesting sometimes but with the help of payola they came to life, OAPs keep on jamming to these songs all day and within a short time it becomes a trend, people that were never interested in the song started to like the song’s lyrics and jump into the trend.
Payola is a global infection in the music industry but it has grown more wings in Africa and the Nigeria industry, you can never get your song air if you do not pay or give some sort of gift to the OAP, millions of folks do not really know that these songs are actually induced to be put on the radio playlist.
The internet has further escalated this commercial bribe, these days radio presenters and independent media houses on the internet take part in payola openly. They constantly tweet about a certain song or place a short video on their Instagram handles and the song catches the attention of their followers. This implies that if you do not have money your song will not be played on any radio station unless you have attained a certain level of fame.
These days the industry is being flooded with fake chats from DJs, OAP, and other media personalities, placing songs that do not merit the number one spot.
There are known artists who have been in the music industry for years but the light of fame has never beamed on them for a second however, with payola, a new kid who jumped into the music scene without any good musical background gets all the attention and becomes famous.
Bloggers and some YouTubers are also involved in this feel-good viral effect; they only blog a song that will attract money or favour them in return, however, it is clear that there might not be an honest music industry globally.
