Paying to Make it to the Top of the Charts

Payola, what many authorities would call bribes, is money and gifts that record companies and middlemen give to radio stations to play songs. According to music industry documents, payments to radio stations in a variety of forms have helped launch some of the country's best-known hits and Grammy winners, including last year's Grammy winner for song of the year, "Daughters," by John Mayer, and last year's best new artist Grammy winner, Maroon 5.

"It is certainly the case that payola has been a part of the promotional structure for many of the artists who are out there," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told ABC News. He said the latest version of payola involved people at the highest corporate level of record labels and radio broadcasting companies.

"Historically, it had been cash, other contraband, favors of illicit sorts, that were given to deejays to get airtime for various labels, but the process and mechanisms of payola became more institutionalized over the decades," Spitzer explained. "[It's] slightly more sophisticated, slightly more corporate," he said, "but the essence of the scam is still the same.

And, he added, still illegal.

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