LA Times Investigation Names Top Sony BMG Execs Invloved in Payola

Anyone who has been in the music business for more than 15 minutes is familiar with the realities and rampant nature of (until very recently) payola, pay for play, "promotional funds" funneled through independent promotion companies, and "consultants" who "owned" radio stations.  You knew or at least strongly suspected that the top executives of these companies condone or at the very least turned a knowing blind eye to these practices.  After all, somebody had to approve these huge expenses adding up to hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars annually

Few if any of the top executives of these companies were ever charged or even named, however, in  the various investigations.  The latest round by NY Attorney General Elliott Spitzer proved no exception even as multi-million settlements were paid by Sony BMG and then The Warner Music Group with no excectuives being named.

But a new investigation reported Sunday in the LA Times sheds some light on Sptizer’s belief that knowledge of these illegal practices went all the way to the top of Sony BMG:

"…an inquiry by The Times has found that Spitzer was told that the trail led to two of the company’s highest-ranking executives and some of the most powerful men in music: the Columbia vice president, Charlie Walk, and his boss, Sony Music Label Group U.S. Chief Executive Don Ienner…"

"Two sources also said that Spitzer’s investigators would have named Ienner, Walk and other Sony BMG executives in the body of a complaint if one were brought against the company — not as individual defendants, but as managers who knew about pay-for-play. The source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation confirmed this."

Why weren’t these executives named in the settlement?

"When Sony BMG decided to settle, Spitzer’s office agreed to the company’s request that documents released by the attorney general not name any Sony BMG employees."

Read the entire LA Times Story here.