The Daily Swarm links to this Guardian story, which takes a look at the internet radio service called Jango:

Payola – the illegal practice of paying or in any other way bribing a radio station to play your song – has existed since the advent of pop music. In the 1960s, Alan Freed was the first person convicted of payola and the book Hit Men described in detail how the practice was rife in the 70s and 80s. When the US government clamped down on it, record companies (and the radio stations benefiting from payola) got around the problem by paying “independent promoters” who would do the dirty work for them. But as recently as 2005-06, three of the major labels were indicted and settled out of court for pay-for-play practices.
[…]
Now webcaster Jango has come up with an ingenious way of legitimising these bribes, by declaring publicly that they’ve been paid to play songs. For as little as $30, a band can buy 1,000 plays on the music-streaming service, slotted in between established artists (who don’t pay for their slots, I assume). The artists themselves choose what other music they’d like to be played next to.

Like too many people who write about payola, the writer, Helienne Lindvall, doesn’t … understand what payola is. There’s no law against paying someone to play your songs on the internet, and Jango isn’t doing anything “ingenious.”

There is a law that says US broadcasters have to disclose payments for airplay, along with some other requirements. The broadcasters are using public airwaves, of course, and under statute at least are supposed to be operating in the public interest. Ha.

On the internet, who cares? Let the listener beware.