Payola Spells Relief For NY Arts Groups

New York state’s two-year-old probe into illegal payola practices by record companies has yielded over $13 million in legal settlements thus far, and the money has become an unexpected windfall for the state’s arts organizations. “In all, 153 nonprofit groups statewide were chosen to receive from $15,000 to $750,000 in last week’s first round of payouts from the New York State Music Fund, established as a repository for the payola settlement money.”