How to Use payola in a Sentence

payola

noun

• These radio disc jockeys accepted payola to play particular songs.
• Not just by the payola thing, but by his need for attention.
  — Jacob Bernstein, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2017
• Let’s spend a moment on the payola theory, just for fun.
  — Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 25 May 2018
• Still, rolling out a new set of payola demands in the middle of a global pandemic that has working artists struggling to stay afloat marks a new low.
  — The Artist Rights Alliance, Rolling Stone, 18 May 2021
• Artist advocate Krukowski describes the offering as a new kind of payola.
  — Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2021
• If $13 billion a year in payola can’t appease Quebec, the cause is probably beyond salvaging.
  — Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 22 Jan. 2019
• And since the 1960s, this practice, known as payola, has been regulated by the federal government.
  — Billboard, 28 June 2021
• Joi’s recorded performances embodied all the funkiness my little soul had been waiting for at a time when Black radio was pinned under the thumb of payola.
  — Longreads, 27 Apr. 2020
• In the label’s early days, the music industry practice later known as payola—paying DJs to play your records—was not only legal but common.
  — Bryan Greene, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Feb. 2022
• In an industry once plagued by payola and still poisoned by cronyism, there needs to be transparency about the Rock Hall process to insure credibility.
  — Jon Bream, Star Tribune, 13 May 2021
• The payola-scheming music executive and the police officer who controls the drug cartel are not just grifters but sharky megalomaniacs.
  — Jesse Green, New York Times, 15 Mar. 2023
• The line between these two had been continuously blurring through decades of mergers and vertical integrations (and vast amounts of payola) until listeners had enough.
  — Danny Garcia, Rolling Stone, 7 Jan. 2022
• The Discovery Mode feature, which is somewhat reminiscent of a payola – currency in exchange for plays – creates an interesting business case for artists and labels alike.
  — Jacqueline Schneider, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2023
• Industry insiders, with their truffle-pig noses for sniffing out scandal from the air, suspected more to the story, perhaps involving prostitution, large-scale payola, or a hard-drug racket.
  — Amy X. Wang, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2021
• The parents, Singer, and college coaches played a direct role in the scandal, while negligent admissions officials and campus shakedown artists helped create the culture in which sleazoids like Singer and payola parents operated.
  — Frederick Hess, Forbes, 12 Oct. 2021
• When embarrassing information or legal threats don’t work, people with power and financial means often turn to old-fashioned payola.
  — Ben Widdicombe, Town & Country, 18 Jan. 2019
• For Holter, all the discussion about fractions of pennies, parity and payola, while crucial, is less a concern than Spotify’s power and potential consequences for musicians.
  — Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2021
• What started as modest compensation shilling for a local car dealer or pizza parlor has quickly become unapologetic recruiting payola in the win-at-all-costs world of college football and men’s basketball.
  — Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2022
• Rolling Stone magazine in August published an article alleging payola lives on through independent middlemen who purportedly use cash-transfer apps and corporate accounts to move money in exchange for radio airplay.
  — Anne Steele, WSJ, 22 Jan. 2020

Last Updated: 17 Aug 2024