<\/p>\n
iHeartMedia<\/a><\/strong> has settled a Federal Communications Commission<\/strong> investigation into its live music events.<\/p>\n The FCC<\/strong> had been examining whether iHeart<\/strong> broke federal payola rules by giving artists additional airplay on its radio stations in exchange for performing at company concerts and festivals, without the disclosure the law requires.<\/p>\n iHeart<\/strong> and the FCC<\/strong> resolved the matter through a consent decree<\/a> that carries no fine.<\/p>\n By entering into the agreement, iHeart<\/strong> \u201cmakes no admission of liability or violation of any law, regulation, or policy.\u201d<\/p>\n In place of a monetary penalty, iHeartMedia<\/strong> has agreed to develop and implement a compliance plan within 60<\/strong> calendar days.<\/p>\n The plan requires the company to appoint an internal compliance officer, train relevant employees, maintain a whistleblower hotline, and file compliance reports with the FCC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The regulator announced the agreement<\/a> on Thursday (July 9<\/strong>), a day after its Enforcement Bureau adopted the decree.<\/p>\n iHeartMedia<\/strong>, which the FCC<\/strong> described as the largest owner of radio stations in the United States, hosts live events and festivals across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe FCC is committed to ensuring that artists \u2014 especially up-and-coming ones \u2014 get a fair shake in their dealings with the broadcast industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Brendan Carr, US Federal Communications Commission<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n FCC<\/strong> Chairman Brendan Carr<\/strong> in a statement, said: \u201cThe FCC is committed to ensuring that artists \u2014 especially up-and-coming ones \u2014 get a fair shake in their dealings with the broadcast industry.<\/p>\n \u201cArtists\u2019 talent and the listening public should determine their success. Today\u2019s agreement adds significant new protections and offers the FCC<\/strong> greater transparency to ensure that artists retain their right to decide when and where they will perform.<\/p>\n \u201cArtists have every right to ensure that the radio industry complies with the payola and showola regulations that protect them,\u201d Carr<\/strong> added.<\/p>\n The FCC<\/strong> refers to the practice at the center of the case as \u201cshowola\u201d \u2014 a form of payola in which a station pressures artists to perform at its shows or festivals for free, or for reduced compensation, in exchange for more favorable airtime.<\/p>\n The matter dates back to January 30, 2025<\/strong>, when U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn<\/strong> alerted the FCC<\/strong> to what she called a potential new payola practice in which \u201cradio stations and networks offer more airtime for an artist\u2019s songs if the artist performs a free show.\u201d<\/p>\n Blackburn<\/strong> warned of an \u201cimplicit suggestion that declining to perform could result in reduced airplay.\u201d<\/p>\n The FCC<\/strong>\u2018s Enforcement Bureau issued an industry-wide advisory days later, and Carr<\/strong> followed with a letter to iHeart<\/strong> seeking information about the iHeartCountry Festival \u201925<\/em> in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n In its responses to the Commission, iHeart<\/strong> denied trading airplay for performances, stating that musicians perform at iHeart events for the promotional value, not for additional airplay on company stations.<\/p>\n iHeart<\/strong> likened the sets artists play at its festivals to film marketing, describing them as \u201ca teaser for the audience in the same way that a movie trailer is a teaser for the full movie.\u201d<\/p>\n The decree also requires iHeart to tell every invited performer that appearing, or declining, has no bearing on their airplay, and that artists can take any suspected payola straight to the FCC<\/p>\n For a set of tentpole events \u2014 including the iHeartRadio Music Festival<\/em>, the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour<\/em> and the iHeartCountry Festival<\/em> \u2014 and for shows in 10<\/strong> named radio markets, the company must post online disclosures identifying each performing artist and the terms of their appearance.<\/p>\n iHeart<\/strong> will file an initial compliance report at 120 days, then further filings at the 12-, 24-, and 36-month marks.<\/p>\n The Enforcement Bureau<\/strong>, in turn, agreed to terminate its investigation and to dismiss any related third-party complaints.<\/p>\n Absent new material evidence, the Bureau said it will not use the facts developed in the investigation to open a new case against iHeart<\/strong>, or to question the company\u2019s basic qualifications to hold its broadcast licenses.<\/p>\n The consent decree was signed for the company by Christopher Cain<\/strong>, iHeartMedia<\/strong>\u2018s Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel, and for the regulator by Patrick Webre<\/strong>, Chief of the FCC<\/strong>\u2018s Enforcement Bureau.Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" iHeartMedia has settled a Federal Communications Commission investigation into its live music events. The FCC had been examining whether iHeart broke federal payola rules by giving artists additional airplay on its radio stations in exchange for performing at company concerts and festivals, without the disclosure the law requires. iHeart and the FCC resolved the matter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2496265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2496264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/iHeartMedia-settles-FCC-\u2018payola-probe-at-its-live-music-events.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496266,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496264\/revisions\/2496266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2496265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n