Apple caught up in playola “scandal”
Oh man, wait ’till Eliot Spitzer gets a hold of this one!
Coincidence?
That’s right. Just minutes after the world learned that Randy Newman was still alive, who should show up on iTunes as the “featured artist” of the week than none other than the Singing Bush himself, Randy Newman. Could it be that playing Steve off the stage comes with a bit of “playola” in the form of free advertising on the most popular music download site known to man?
Perhaps “scandal” is a bit too harsh a word (considering we seem to be the only people who noticed/care about this) but it all seems a little fishy if you ask us. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to have one of our idiotic e-mails to Apple’s PR department acknowledged, so we’ll leave the actual investigating to sites with non-imaginary press credentials to uncover.
I don’t want to laughed at here but who’s even heard of Randy Newman!
I did notice that he was a featured artist, but didn’t think too much about it…
Matthew
hey, he beats Kyle XY & Taylor Swift, doesn’t he?
I thought the same thing as you, Dr. Macenstein. “Hey Randy, come play Steve off the stage and there’s a coushy spot in center square for ya.”
Sorry folks, but there’s nothing wrong here. iTunes is a retailer. S just like your local Ralph’s or Stop & Shop, they can collect “stocking fees” and “merchandising allowances” for giving one product a better location than another.
You didn’t really think that 3-story display of Lay’s potato chips, or the Coca-Cola football stadium got there all by itself, did you? This is the same thing, but with “virtual floorspace” (and no inflatable Budweiser lizards).