This is the same defense used in radio. Note the wording ... "no one can pay". Favors and indirect payment are used excessively in the music industry. Note that

This is the same defense used in radio. Note the wording ... "no one can pay". Favors and indirect payment are used excessively in the music industry. Note that I also said that payola was the act of "direct payment". An example of indirect payment in radio would be the record label gifting a set of expensive tickets to the station. Remember those contests in the 2000s where the radio station would play a collection of songs over the course of a few hours, and if you could call in and be caller number 15 and name all the songs, you could win free concert tickets? The record label didn't pay the radio station with money - The tickets were gifted to the station for free. But as a result, the radio station played [insert band name]'s songs for 2 hours straight (and possibly other artists on the same label). This is a win-win, because a ton of people talk about this contest with their family and friends, so the station gets free promo, and the artist gets exposure. I don't know how Spotify is doing this in the digital era, but ask anyone connected to the music industry. This 100% happens. For a lot of casual listeners, Spotify editorial playlists are the new radio station.