Sony has agreed to pay 10 million dollars (US) and to stop paying radio station employees to play its artists' songs, to settle an investigation into "pay for play" practices in the music industry conducted by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Record companies in the US cannot offer financial incentives under a 1960 law. Spitzer found that Sony BMG paid for holiday packages for radio programmers, paid some stations' operational expenses and hired middlemen to make illegal payments to get more airplay for its artists.
