Do you have to pay DJs for your music to be played on radio?
Today I came across several articles about the sacking of DJ Tiiny by Capital Xtra for charging £200 to play songs and keep tracks on playlists for his primetime show.
The popular DJ who also tours with Stormzy has been hosting a Friday evening slot since 2018 but because of his ‘entrepreneurial’ ventures , he is now out in the cold.
He has since been removed from the Capital Xtra schedules and his profile expunged from its website after a producer claimed to have received an email saying he would premier a track on his Friday night show and keep it on his playlist for two weeks for a fee of £200.
The DJ took to his Twitter account to apologize, stating that he had taken advantage of his position after being given an opportunity in radio.
The issue of pay-for-play (payola), which is the practice of making payments in order to have your song played on a station is well known around the world.
In Zimbabwe there are many artistes who claim that certain DJs demand some form of payment if they want their music to be played on radio.
While I am yet to see any DJ being fired for such a practice and wouldn’t know for sure if it is actually happening, I can’t really judge if the practice is good or bad.
I mean, if I was in the same position that DJ Tiiny was in, I would probably do the same thing because in most cases the artiste would not have had that opportunity to have his or her music played on such a platform.
There is a high probability that most artistes who take this shortcut are crap and know that if their music is to go through normal vetting processes, they might not even make it into the radio station’s library.
If Winky D or Jah Prayzah is to release a song today, I am sure every radio station would make an effort to be the first to get their hands on it because they know the value of having such artistes on their playlists.
Then comes me and my Chamba Boys Band with our debut song. Do you think I would have faith in my music and leave it for the radio librarians or whoever is supposed to give it a listen and determine if its fit to be playlisted or not? Or I will just look for the DJ who I heard can play my song if I pay him $50 or whatever the amount he charges for such a service.
In this scenario, should we say the DJ is doing something wrong for charging to play my song which would probably not have made it to his playlist or I should rather treat the payment as a ‘thank you’ for giving me the opportunity.
It’s a tricky one.
The issue of payola has always been a tricky one and personally I am on the fence. While I understand that what the DJ is being unethical, there is also a voice in my head telling me that the same DJ just gave an upcoming artiste an opportunity to be heard by a wider audience.
I am not really an expert in regards to how radio actually operates and would also like to hear your thoughts on this issue.
Jump into the comment section and lets discuss.
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