Sir Rochard 'Dock' BunsonYou ever think how it's weird that payola is illegal, but promoted videos and playlists are "how the industry works now"? 
AccordionBruce@SrRochardBunson
It was always kind of weird and inconsistent that payola was illegal
The dudes at Chess Records paid radio stations to promote their records, but it was above board and they kept receipts (for the tax write off) and it was just advertising
It only became a scandal when they held hearings talking about white and black kids dancing together
Fans and others were told set lists weren’t all based on requests and record sales, but that was only a technicality
@SrRochardBunson
Radio playlists are a trip: Top 40 stations would speed up records to make their stations sound “brighter” 🤩
Something in the Air
Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation
Great book by
Marc Fisher
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/49902/something-in-the-air-by-marc-fisher/9780307547095
#radio
@SrRochardBunson
Bands always got charged big PR bills for sending records to every radio station on huge lists
Many DJs and underpaid music journalists too made handy extra income by immediately reselling these “Not for resale” copies
The “No payola” thing always struck me as a kind of pro-wrestling style kayfabe “not in front of the fans” anomaly
Certainly the musicians never stopped paying for it
@AccordionBruce that all makes sense & thanks for sharing!
One of my biggest "in the wild" 
scores was a Velvet Underground radio not for resell 45 for $1! I couldn't get out of that estate sell fast enough after paying! 😅
@SrRochardBunson
The whole “integrity/sellout/authenticity” thing in music goes back more than a century to European folk music people deciding what for to be “traditional”
I love that debate. There’s rich stuff in there once you get over there being any real thing without a predecessor or creator
Some person sat down and made all this stuff up, even if we don’t know who it was
The accordion was fun to write about because it’s young enough that we know many tantalizingly early players