Less than a week after Infinity severed ties with independent promoters, Entercom has followed suit. However, Entercom executive VP Jack Donlevie tells Billboard that the company had very few deals with indies left, and that the move is “simply the last step in what has been an evolving situation over the last several years.”
“We’ve made a decision to end the very few relationships that we have left,” Donlevie says.
The decisions by Entercom and Infinity come on the heels of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s campaign against payola. As previously reported, the major labels have each received a request from Spitzer’s office seeking information “in connection with the promotion of records on New York radio stations.” Independent promoters and radio stations were served with subpoenas as well, sources tell Billboard.
Donlevie says the decision was prompted by “nothing in particular, other than it’s a business model that doesn’t work anymore … We have very few relationships left at all anyway. We’re focusing more on direct relationships with the record companies, as opposed to dealing with independents.”
Since several of its deals with independent promoters required providing advance notice of termination, Donlevie says the curtailments are effective at the end of the year.
