It stinks that the music industry is rigged, like so many others…
Lord Acton
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Independent rapper and musician Tom MacDonald has taken the music industry head-on and I think he has made more people aware of how it works. Watch this video where he explains how as an independent artist, he does not get the credit he deserves because the music industry is rigged.
How songs get to number one involves a variety of factors. One is how many times it is played on the radio. Pay for play is illegal, but there are loopholes that the labels use. You don’t think a radio station plays the same song every hour because people want to hear it every hour do you? They play it every hour because of various kickbacks that the radio station group gets in exchange… things like station vehicle wraps, concert tickets to give away, or other swag. When a Program Director has no budget to buy these things (because every dollar profited is counted toward the CEO bonus), and when there are multiple competitors vying for the same audience, these are the solutions that bubble to the top.
Would you say the industry is corrupt?
