SCRIPT: Music's Dirty Little Secret 2/16/06

Feb. 16, 2006 — -- Last week were the Grammy awards. And tonight our story takes you inside what some say is a dirty little secret of the music business. Do some songs get on the radio just because they're good or do they get a boost from something that has very little to do with talent and may even be illegal? Here's ABC Chief Investigative Correspondent, Brian Ross.

BRIAN ROSS, ABC NEWS

It became the number one song in the country, "Closing Time," by a new group from Minneapolis called Semisonic.

JAKE SLICHTER, DRUMMER

We had always been like the little unknown band with songs that very few people knew.

BRIAN ROSS

The ride to the top of the music charts was an "American Idol" dream come true for drummer Jake Slichter.

JAKE SLICHTER

I remember the first time we played "Closing Time" when it was a number one hit, Washington, DC, at RFK Stadium. The song sort of starts quietly, and you could feel the sort of peel of screams kind of go back through the crowd. When I crashed the cymbals on the downbeat of the chorus, you could just feel this incredible like tidal wave of energy, and it just like whoosh. We'd been playing rock music our whole lives, and this is like, this is that moment that was like...

BRIAN ROSS

That was the moment you felt ...

JAKE SLICHTER

Oh.

BRIAN ROSS

"I made it."

JAKE SLICHTER

Wow, yeah.

BRIAN ROSS

"I'm a rock star."

JAKE SLICHTER

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That is a rock star moment.

BRIAN ROSS

But as the song started to spread across the airwaves of American radio, from Los Angeles to New York, the new rock star says he was let in on one of the secrets of his band's success, payola.

JAKE SLICHTER

We definitely benefited from payola, there's no doubt about it.

BRIAN ROSS

Payola. What many authorities would call bribes. Money and gifts given to radio stations, record companies and middlemen to play "Closing Time," and it turns out many other songs.

JAKE SLICHTER

It cost something close to $700-, $800,000 to get "Closing Time" on the air.

BRIAN ROSS

In payments to radio stations.

JAKE SLICHTER

Yeah, to keep it on the air long enough for people, for public taste to really grab on to it, yeah. A chunk of change.

BRIAN ROSS

A multi-million-dollar secret that was out in the open at last week's Grammys festivities in Los Angeles. Where a number of recording artists on the red carpet said it was an unfortunate part of the industry. From veteran Tony Bennett...

REPORTER

Do you believe payola still exists?