While the American Association of Independent Music welcomed the move by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to force the major labels to admit and dump their payola tactics, suggesting the move would help the indie sector, the head of one American independent has dismissed the anti-payola offensive saying it won't make any difference to smaller labels who struggle to get air time on American radio.
Hitsdailydouble quote Victory Records boss Tony Brummel as saying: "Do you know the difference between a bookie and a stock broker? I don't. The term 'payola' always seemed quite hypocritical to me. In politics, they call it 'lobbying' but you never see anyone getting busted for that. Whatever the end game is here, it will not 'help' any of the independent labels get more records on the airwaves. When programmers decide to programme more independent music, you will see a difference, only then. If Spitzer wanted to make a change, he would 'lobby' the FCC to force the stations to programme at least 20% (this representing roughly what the current, independent label market share is) independent content. Is he going to go after retail co-op next? What about buying onto tours?"