Abio was attempting to present a positive side of something hat has been universally tagged as a cancerous evil to the music industries the world over; PAYOLA.
I spoke to him last week and from the look of things, he is still bent on becoming a messianic authority propounding the subject of the positive sides of Payola to the music industry.
It was so interesting as the argument became very intense when ace musician Rex Omar joined them in the studios of Radio Gold. I was rather peeved because Rex’s vociferousness did not allow Abio to make his points complete and clear enough.
Abio gave many reasons why he thought payola has positive sides and during my chat with him in his office, he made it clear that the system of “no payola” is a very great disadvantage to the young and up coming musicians who also have good albums.
His reason was that, DJs would be obliged to play the songs of only those who are already known and have made it since those are the ones the public would love to listen to more. I did not get that one quite clearly but he was beginning to have a logical basis (I don’t know whether he was right or not) but was interrupted by the other guest’s counter comments.
Abio explained to me, however, that musicians have ignored the main killer of their industry which is piracy and they are rather attacking radio presenters and calling them vampires.
“Meanwhile, they are the same ones who chase us with money to promote their songs on air.” he said. I am not supporting Abio but I think it is true, Producers actually allocate money as part of their budget for promoing an album and I don’t think if they were losing on that score they would have made that budget in the first place.
I detest the argument that payola is a contributory factor to the dying industry. Every album, no matter how good it is, becomes a hit based on the media promotion it enjoys which includes radio air play and that is why the producers chase presenters with money.
They, therefore, have no right accusing the presenters of being part of the problem. In actual fact, it’s the producers and musicians who generated the interest of payola in the DJs.
The argument has not ended yet because Prime I has promised to invite Abio back on the show. I cannot wait to listen to the whole advantages payola has for musicians.
Anyway, we all know payola is illegal but I want to ask those who called into the show to disagree with Abio…”is the term payola only associated with radio presenters and musicians? Is it not found in other businesses too and more seriously, don’t people in this country do it in every sector?” Ye white-washed hypocrites. Pull out the log in your eyes first before attacking others.
