Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Payola hearings made unannounced payments to DJs a national issue around 1960. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Paying for airplay has a name and a scandal

Payola hearings made unannounced payments to DJs a national issue around 1960 Labels had long used gifts and payments to get records played, and the hearings pushed that practice into public view. Later rules required disclosure of anything of value given for airplay. Enforcement has never been complete. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Library of Congress

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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History trivia

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The iTunes Store sold single tracks, not just albumsIt opened in 2003 and made buying one song a normal thing to do Streaming turned the collection into a subscriptionListeners stopped owning the files and paid for access instead The Hot 100 chart started in 1958It combined sales and radio plays into one weekly ranking One song pays out through several separate streamsPublishing, performance, mechanical and sync money are collected differently Composers organised a collecting society in 1914ASCAP gathered licence fees from venues and split them among members US copyright lasts 70 years after a songwriter diesWorks written from 1978 onward are protected for life plus seven decades

Tags: radio, industry, law

Paying for airplay has a name and a scandal: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Payola hearings made unannounced payments to DJs a national issue around 1960. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.