The payola charge used to crop up every time the small labels started to get hits. The big labels would shout that payola had to stop, then slowly they would go back to their old tricks. What good is it having a big company if some upstart can get just as many sales?
The industry has a lot of time and money invested in bands that may take several years to mature. They can't risk seeing their investment fall flat when the musical tastes move on to some new trend that kids heard on the internet.