Censorship in the Recording Industry.

Indirectly regulated by the Federal Communications Commission Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates the radio, the recording industry is largely self-censored—often leading to confused and arbitrary policies. Commercial sound recordings have generally been difficult to censor. The recording industry is a network of independent producers, record labels, distributors, retailers, broadcasters, and artists. There has been no one point at which to halt the flow of controversial product. In fact, a ban on broadcast of a particular song or album has often translated into retail sales. This type of success has been commonplace in popular music. A radio ban on the Rolling Stones Rolling Stones, the ’ 1965 single “Satisfaction” seemed only to have lifted sales and to have prompted the band to repeat the tactic, less successfully, with their 1966 release “Let’s Spend the Night Together.” Even a ban imposed by large retailers cannot prevent the flow of controversial product. In 1992 retail giants Wal-Mart[Wal Mart] Wal-Mart and Kmart[Kmart] Kmart refused to stock Nirvana Nirvana’s In Utero In Utero[In Utero] , whose cover art pictured human fetuses; nevertheless, the album entered the Billboard charts at number one. Recording industry