NEW YORK (AP) -- Recording industry titan Sony BMG Music Entertainment agreed Monday to pay $10 million and stop bribing radio stations to feature its artists in what a state official called a more sophisticated generation of the payola scandals of decades ago.
The agreement springs from an investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who called the practice "pervasive" in the industry and suggested other music industry giants could face similar penalties.
Pay-for-play "is driving the industry, and it is wrong," Spitzer told reporters
This still goes on. The record labels just don't directly deal with the stations anymore. They hire agents to do it. They pay the agents, the agents pay the radio stations. That's still legal.
