Payola Controlla: How Drake and UMG’s Settlement Highlights the New Music Economy
Juliette Paymayesh, JD '27
All Drake needed was “a One Dance,” but recent litigation alleges it’s the record industry that’s been two-stepping with payola all along. Last year, Drake’s team filed petitions in Texas and New York alleging that Universal Music Group and iHeartMedia engaged in “deliberate, irregular, and inappropriate business practices – including covert and illegal pay-to-play (‘payola’) deals – to create a record-shattering spread of Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar. Commentators called it one of the most...