In the USA, the overwhelming majority of terrestrial radio is owned by ~3 corporate behemoths with profit-sharing arrangements with the Big Three labels and their thousands of subsidiaries. What used to be decentralized to the local market level is now mostly inaccessible to unsigned / independent artists. Instead radio is just a distribution network for the major labels and their subs.

Consider this typical everyday sort of press release we see in the industry all the time these days: http://www.musicrow.com/2014/03/clear-channel-bbr-music-grou...

Payola: Payola, in the music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on commercial radio in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S. law, 47 U.S.C. § 317, a radio station can play a specific song in exchange for money, but this must be disclosed on the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play of the song should not be counted as a "regular airplay".

Revenue sharing agreements? SMH.

Imagine you're an independent artist. That's the hurdle you have to be able to cross in order to get access to discovery platforms. This includes access to choice Spotify or YouTube playlists, satellite and Internet radio, and other conventional discovery mechanisms.