The "What You Need To Know About The Music Industr y" Part 3

Today's topic I want to try and keep a little short. Today we are going to talk about getting your music out there. This blog is for not only artist but indie lables as well. So lets begin why don't we.
While in the Academy Meeting there had been a discussion about getting your music out. The question ask was "how do you get your music to radio when you have the big wigs paying for airtime?". It was a great question and the answer was something I had been saying for a while now....*uck radio!
Yes, having your song played on the radio is a great thing. Yes, it does promote to your consumers. Now the question is, how many of your consumers actually listen to the radio? When is the last time you spent over 15 minutes listening to the radio? Exactly!
Now its so many people who pay the radio disc jockey to spin their music, to me its wasted money. Your playing a song that isn't register through sound scan which mean you aren't getting paid for it spinning. Its not going to be in rotation so how much promotion did you really get? Its worthless. I don't want to say *uck radio, but *uck paying the DJs to spin your music. The reason I say that is simple. The DJ has no control of what gets regular rotation at that station. No matter how much you pay them, they could never give you an exact number of how long or how many spins you will get. That's controled by the Program Director. Even then, you have to break it down further.
This is how the radio operates. Their profit is made off of advertisement. Therefore they advertise a product during the times that most of the listeners are tuned in to that station, this is refered to as peak hours. Those peak hours are created by giving the listeners what they would rather hear, and that determines what songs go in rotation. Those songs are used to drive traffic which creates peak hours which determines how much an advertiser pays for their commerical to be played during that time. The question is, how much traffic would your song create? From the radio's perspective, what sense would it make to put your song in rotation if it has no fan base behind it? For example, how much profit would you make from a club performance that you haven't promoted for? My point exactly.
Instead of spending your money on radio, invest into club DJs and your core audience. Spend money in the clubs your listeners go to. That should be your radio. Its not the radio personality that determines what plays on the radio station, nor is it the program director to be honest. You know who it is? Its that female who leaves from the bar to the dance floor when your song is playing yelling "girl that's my shit right there!" That's who determines what gets played on the radio station. Those are the radio's customers. The radio has to give their customers the music they want. Its a cycle. The club owner wants his club packed so he picks the best DJ to do such. The Dj knows the club owner is depending on him to keep people moving so he has to play what packs the floor. Therefore you should be providing the DJ with what song he should play. Once your hot in the streets and the club, the radio is forced to put you in rotation because your song is what their customers want.
Invest your money and time into creating a fan base, radio will come. Its people who sell out venues that don't have anything playing on the radio. This is not the 80's people. Its a new time and a new day. Be smart about where your money goes. Stop trying to make albums....breath...and come up with one hot song. Get it mix and mastered then hit the street one person at a time. Collect email addresses, myspace pages, facebook accounts, and start pushing that one song. Go to the hottest strip clubs find the hottest dancers in there and make their performance tapes for them with all the songs they loves to dance to and include your single on their individual show tape. Throw each dancer a few extra bucks for dancing to your song, then buy the DJ a bottle and get his contact info so he can spin your same song for you at every club he's at. Put your track on itunes and wait for radio to catch on.
Now if you still thinks its in your best interest to pay radio then do it this way. Don't pay the morning show DJ or the afternoon rush hour DJ to play your song. Here's a better idea. Pay for a commerical to run during peak hours. On that commerical have a snippet of your song playing. At the end of this snippet provide your myspace page address or whatever website that your consumers can purchase your song. This way you know exactly how long and how many times your consumers will be hearing your song and its being promoted properly.
Aight, this acutally ended up being a little longer than I expected so I'll stop it right there. As always feel free to comment the page or whatever. Get at you later. Oh and again, if I mispelled something....so what, my spell check is jacked up. Forget about it!

-CASH-

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