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The Science of Radio: Understanding the Format

March 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When listening to the radio, what are the first thoughts that come into your mind? Maybe it’s the artist, the melody, or even the lyrics. To the average person, it’s their favorite song. How does one who is doing business with the radio station view it? That’s the view we want to approach when creating music and approaching radio stations for airplay consideration.

 

The questions you should be considering are:

Whenever anyone hears my record, will I be able generate sales/downloads, and will advertisers want to support my music?

Which artists are playing on the radio and why are they playing at different times?

Which time of the day do I hear any new music on the air, if any?

Does the station have mix shows? If so, who are the DJs and what time do they air?

Are the DJs in or out of the market?

Why is it necessary that a song is no longer than four minutes?

How long do average listeners actually listen to the station?

So many questions, too many answers. However if you’re smart in your approach and have the right team around you, finding out the answers to these questions will make your job easier. It may cost you some on the front end, but the benefits will be great in the end. The goal is to get your song into rotation because the people want to hear it. In 2011 there is no room for records that will not become classics in 30 years. Some of the music we hear now will be forgotten about and just fade away. If you want to be on the radio and have staying power, you need to make classics.

Derek “The Bigg DM” Jurand

VP/Core DJs Worldwide, LLC

CEO-DMJ Music Group, LLC

 

 

Filed Under: Artist Tips, DJ Coalitions, DJs, radio Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ASK AN EXPERT – Going For Radio Adds

April 12, 2010 by 2 Comments

RadioUnless you have worked for the radio department of a label, or else you have worked for an independent promoter or radio magazine, you probably have never heard of an “add date”. But the “add date” is probably the most basic building block of both commercial and college airplay, and it is used in every successful airplay charting campaign there is, so we better cover how it works.

The closest analogy there is to an add date is the “street date”. A street date is when a CD is “available” to the public. It is supposed to tell retailers when to “make available” the release to customers. That is where the similarity ends, however; radio goes on to be far more complicated.

A radio “add date” is supposed to tell stations when to add a record to its playlist. It is completely separate from, and has little else to do with, the street date. The add date can be before, the same as, or after the street date. Regardless, an add date simply MUST be used with any serious airplay attempt. A negative side effect, however, surfaces: You have one chance… and one chance ONLY… to make a particular song or album go at radio. After all, the date is printed right there on the package. You cannot come back next year and ask a station to reconsider it (and, we are talking here about new artists/labels.)

Everything a radio promoter does when talking to stations centers on the add date…

Four weeks before the add date, the promoter is describing the package to the stations (and for commercial stations… the consultants are handled too,) giving the stations a rough idea of what to expect musically. Also, a fax goes out, showing the release.

Three weeks before the add date, the promoter is describing the artist and the music in more detail, describing the spine of the CD, and scheduling resends for stations with changed personnel/addresses.

Two weeks before the date, the promoter solicits PDs/MDs for their initial interest/non-interest, and continues resends. Also, the details of any pertinent tour dates, press articles, or retail events/carriage are presented. It is also at this time that the first trade ads (advertisements, not “adds”) will run… scheduled and worded by the promoter.

Finally, one week before the add date, the promoter fishes for commitments from the most-interested stations; re-words the next trade ads; sends a second round of faxes; re-affirms to each station that they know the correct add date; does a final round of re-sending; scans for possible early adds; and finally, makes one last contact/message with each PD/MD in hopes that the station can be swayed at the last minute… while stations are deciding on which record to add. This is done with 25 to 2000 stations every week, depending on the campaign.

That’s the easy part. Now the real work starts… getting spins to occur after the add date; being “added” does not necessarily mean you are being “played”. Being added simply is the step you have to go through, “officially”, before spins occur. That’s why the “add charts” are separate from the “spin charts” in radio magazines. Your goal for the first charting week of every radio campaign is to get on the “most added” chart first, and you have only one week to do it. Thereafter, your focus becomes the main spin chart. And one by one, every week, the promoter contacts/messages each PD/MD, and attempts to get more and more of them on the bandwagon. Artists with bad music, or with no support, will struggle to get new stations, and probably won’t be “most added”. Releases with great music and good support will easily make the most added chart, and will then jump onto the main chart, with several new stations coming on each week (again, assuming we are working a new artist/label.)

The promoter’s work then continues: A non-commercial campaign may go 5-10 more weeks; A commercial campaign (for a single song) may go 3 to 12 more MONTHS, depending on results.

Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Ask An Expert, Featured, Keys to Success, major labels, Marketing, radio, Radio Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ASK AN EXPERT – Creating a Story for Commercial Radio

March 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

lil-wayne-tim-Westwood

When working with the mass media (radio, TV, papers, magazines), one thing to keep in mind is that they are just that… MASS… and anything you can do to let radio know that you are building a mass story for your artist will help tremendously in your ability to get airplay. A special note here: This info is not intended for an individual artist (or one-person label) to go and try themselves; it is beyond what an individual can do. Even if you had the time (40 to 120 hours per week), you would not enjoy the process.

Commercial radio wants to build a “star”, and the first step to doing this is to build a story. A “star” is an artist whose one particular song is being played all across the country at the same time. Radio wants to be part of the other media building this star. Commercial radio (especially) does not want to be the only media doing it, or much less, be the only radio station doing it. As a matter of fact, by definition, a single station (or two or three stations) cannot “build a star”; no matter how much they play an artist. It takes a group of stations, across the country, doing the same thing at the same time with the same song from the same artist.

Let’s start with radio itself. In a promoter’s daily phone calls with the program directors and music directors, one of the most important things to inform a station about is what other stations have just added the artist. “Add” information is SO important that it is often the ONLY thing that is talked about, especially in the early stages of a campaign. Nothing in commercial radio happens without the add. It might start out like this: “We have adds last week in Tacoma, Austin, Orlando, Fresno, Wichita Falls and Dearborn, and commitments from Miami, Seattle, Dallas and Chicago.”

Next up on the airplay menu are spins. Starting with the P1s and then the P2s and P3s, and starting with the highest (or most exciting) spins, the whole list is gone over with the station, describing (and thus somewhat proving) to the station that action is developing. This information is applied to each station in a way that is designed to make them want to jump on the bandwagon.

As things develop, the promoter goes for quotes from the stations…like “Mary’s record is getting great calls!” or “The XYZ song is moving into power…it’s strong females for us!” The quotes are then fed to every station that is talked to; it might take two weeks to get the message to everyone, even with full-time phone calls.

Finally, as the campaign progresses, the promoter might move into telling the stations which stations are doing what type of give-aways, which ones are doing visits, or which ones are doing any number of other things which help the “story” look like it is building.

Moving on from radio, other pieces of information are also fed to stations, thus helping the stations to decide if a particular artist is worthy of adding…

What performances is the artist making? What are the attendances? Is the artist being invited back? Did the artist get a letter of reference from the venue? And most important, did/will the artist perform in the station’s particular city? (And, is the venue an advertiser on the station?)

How about retail? If CDs are only available at the gigs, how many are moving at each gig? If the CD is distributed, who is the distributor(s)? Have there been any past sales of this artist? Most importantly, what stores is the CD on the shelf at (and what are the sales at those stores) in the city where the STATION is located? Are any of those stores advertising on the station? This process is repeated with each and every station every week.

Finally, the process is applied to press information (newspapers, magazines, TV, web). Stations are shown a building of interest, especially when the press is in the same city as the station, and when the press mentions the station by name.

Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Ask An Expert, Featured, Marketing, radio, Radio Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ASK AN EXPERT – Commercial Radio Stations – Part 2

February 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

dolmen_fm_radio

We now talk about what is needed to promote to these types of stations.

MAILING: Although mailing your CD to stations is not considered “promotion” in-and-of itself (promotion requires phone calls), it nevertheless must be done, and when doing it is recommended that you do your own mailing instead of using a mailing service (or worse, a compilation CD service.) CDs from mailing services, which are sometimes sent with a magazine, tend to get lost. Also, they are sometimes delivered with many other CDs, which can dilute your project. If you do use these services, do so in addition to doing your own mailing, i.e., consider it an advertisement.

SPECIALTY SHOW VS. ROTATION: On commercial radio stations, specialty spins (also known as tests, spikes, new music shows, local music shows, or dayparting) is what many bands mistake for regular rotation. As a matter of fact, one of the uses of a specialty show is for a station to put songs that it can’t really play (but doesn’t want to tell the artist/label this.) The average new artist/label will be very happy to hear that they are “being played”, because the artist/label doesn’t realize that this means only one or two spins.

Only regular rotation can reach a large number of people (and can help you sell records IF you have a full-time salesperson calling the stores)…but it is also (by far) the most difficult to get. Specialty shows (and mixshows) however, while not nearly as powerful as regular rotation, do still have uses…for example, building the buzz, introducing a song to a station, or providing airplay practice for a new label or artist. And many times, the person at the station who does the specialty/mixshow also sits in on the same music meetings with the music director and program director.

PROMOTERS: Also called radio promoters, airplay promoters, radio teams, promotion departments, etc., promoters are the people who call the stations and give them the information they need to play your song. (Faxes/emails are also used.) You will find promoters who work at labels who only promote the artists on their label, and promoters who work independently (these are called “indies”) who are for hire by labels and artists.

The main thing that a promoter does is try to make it appear that a big picture is developing: Adds are happening, spins are increasing, interviews are occurring, great comments are being made, and if pertinent… sales are occurring, shows are selling, and press is printing! All of this is updated and repeated every week to every station (25 to 3000 stations, depending on the promotion level…most often it is 100 to 500.)

As for indie promoters, they vary in the reports that they give you (some don’t do them at all,) the stations they call (some do only one genre, others do more,) the promotions or advertising they handle (some don’t do this,) and the accessibility that they give you (some are easy for you to reach, others never answer the phone and hardly ever call back.)

TRADE ADS: Buying printed advertisements in the radio airplay magazines would be the first step that a serious label/band would consider as their next step beyond simply hiring a promoter. These printed advertisements (1) show stations that you have a serious project, (2) get critical info to the stations in a high-profile and timely (weekly) manner, and (3) greatly increase your chances of an editorial review in the magazines you advertise in.

STATION ADVERTISING: High-level airplay promotion will include the buying of time on broadcast stations (which understandably may be beyond the indie label.) Advertising on stations does several things:

1) Lets the public hear samples of (several?) of your songs.
2) Tells the public where to buy the CD.
3) Tells the public about your gigs.
4) Gets the attention of the station management, who pays more attention to the ads than they do the music.
5) Greatly increases your chances for airplay, because the station is now making money from you.

…And with a little extra work on the part of the promoter:

6) Gets your CD onto the shelves of large chain stores.
7) Gets you gigs in larger venues which you could not get otherwise.

Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime at expert@newindustrytips.com

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Ask An Expert, Basics, DJs, Featured, Keys to Success, Marketing, Monetize Music, Radio Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ASK AN EXPERT – Introduction To Radio Promotions

February 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Stations
No conversation about music marketing would be complete without the word RADIO rearing its ugly head time and time again. Few songs sell well at retail without it. None sell millions without it. You’ve got your CDs manufactured…now what can YOU do about it?

Radio is one of the MASS MEDIA that record companies use to promote CDs to a wide-spread audience. It is the only medium that gets songs to an audience on a REPEATED basis (meaning, a person can hear a song on a particular station 20 or 50 or 100 times…just compare that to TV, film, print…or even touring.) So the question stands: How do you get your songs on the radio? With this and following installments of Airplay 101, we will look at what radio avenues are realistically available to indie bands and indie labels, whether or not you use an independent promoter.

The Total Number of Available Stations

Radio is broken down into two main categories: Commercial and Non-Commercial. If your favorite station promotes itself on billboards and TV, and if its commercials are “in your face”, then it is a commercial station. But if it never seems to have blatant ads for itself, and if its “commercials” are very “soft sell”, then it is a non-commercial station. The two types of stations are treated very differently as far as airplay is concerned.

There are approximately 10,000 commercial stations, and 2,500 non-commerical stations, in the United States. Here is a rough breakdown of the ones that have new-music formats:

Commercial:

Adult Contemporary

692
Hot Adult Contemporary

335
Modern Adult Contemporary

59
Soft Adult Contemporary

376
Adult Album Alternative

75
Urban

176
Urban Adult Contemporary

103
Rhythmic Top 40

61
Top 40

292
Spanish

495
Rock and Modern Rock

306
Alternative

103
Country (all forms)

1,990
Jazz

85
Smooth (contemporary) Jazz

80
Classical

32
Kids

36
Religious

1,067

Non-Commercial (consists of college, community, and NPR stations):

All styles on one station

1,000
Religious

500
Classical

272
Jazz

120

Stations that are not listed here are either news/talk, oldies, foreign language (besides Spanish), traffic info, or some other non-new-music format.

THE CHARTS
Regardless of what you were thinking were the “charts”, you should familiarize yourself with radio-only publications that “track” airplay (as opposed to tracking retail or ticket sales.) Also, you need to be careful of the word “chart”, because confusion will inevitably occur if you do not specify what chart you mean: “Charting” in the “trades” or magazines is what most people mean when they use the word “chart”, but it is constantly mistaken as meaning charting on an individual-station’s chart, or “playlist”. The first chart is an average of many stations, while the second chart is from just one station.

A long-standing entry-level publication for this purpose is CMJ (College Media Journal). With the variety of genres that it covers, and with its acceptance of up-and-coming projects, you can get a good feel for what you are competing against in the radio airplay world. If you are hiring an airplay promoter, then you do not need to subscribe to CMJ or other charts, but you do need to know how the charts work. Note: Your music MUST fit what college stations play, in order for CMJ to be of use to you.

CMJ is the starting point for non-commercial (mostly college) stations. It comes in two versions…the consumer’s monthly version (found on some newsstands) which is called the New Music Monthly, and the professional weekly version (available by subscription only) called the New Music Weekly. The professional version is the one that is of interest here.

With its seven different weekly-airplay charts, the weekly version covers the seven basic areas of music heard on college radio. They are Alternative (called the TOP 200 chart,) Metal (called the LOUD ROCK chart,) Electronic (the RPM chart,) New Age/World (NEW WORLD chart,) Hip Hop, Latin Alternative, Jazz, and Singer-Songwriter (AAA chart).

Forget Billboard…For an indie act with a limited budget, its airplay charts are impossible, since they incorporate sales. Other charts such as R&R and FMQB are possible, however, and we will get to them later.

Thanks for taking a minute to read my Blog, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me anytime atexpert@newindustrytips.com

Filed Under: Artist Tips, Ask An Expert, Basics, DJs, Marketing, Radio Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Get Your Music Played on Internet Radio!

October 14, 2009 by 1 Comment

Many of you have heard about Jango Airplay, but I’m sure not many have actually tried their services. The radio service is run similar to Pandora or Slacker, but brings new artists into the mix as well! I can tell you with full confidence that the service really works, we did a short campaign for Tone Trump’s album with Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes and can tell you we gained some serious airplay as well as some real fans! The dashboard they provide lets you target your plays to regions, similar artists and more! If you are interested in more fans and real radio play next to your favorite major artists then Jango is definitely a place you need to join!

Jango ‘Airplay’ is a music marketing tool for independent artists & record labels to promote their music on Jango.com radio stations to people who like similar kinds of music. Jango.com has millions of listeners who want to discover new music just like yours.

Click the logo below to join Jango Airplay now!
See what other say about Jango!
“Im in Love with Jango” – Usa Today
“Straight Forward and Easy ” – Wall Street Journal
“Makes It Fun to Discover New Music” – Pc World
“Extremely Social Streaming Radio” – Wired
“Refreshingly Simply Online Radio” – Cnet
Filed Under: Featured, Radio Marketing, Web 2.0, Websites Tagged With: , , , , ,