Break It Down

Excluding Internet radio for the moment, there are really only two types of radio stations you need be concerned with: commercial and non-commercial—public, NPR (National Public Radio) and college. Of the two, you have a more realistic chance initially of getting your music played on college and public radio (non-commercial). People at these stations are generally more receptive to independently released, unknown artists. These stations are looking for new music; they want to be the ones who “discover” a major new artist. College radio should be your initial target. There are several hundred college stations that are substantial enough in their market to make a difference. Many of these stations are CMJ core stations, reporting their airplay data to CMJ for charting purposes.

Commercial radio is your secondary target; commercial radio airplay sells records. Commercial radio tends to be more conservative when it comes to taking chances on new bands; generally they don’t. The giant broadcast corporations that own them typically govern their playlists, and without a track record or any degree of success at the non-commercial level, you will not make their playlists. They usually wait until a release proves itself in the college radio arena before they will consider adding it to their playlist. With this in mind, it makes more sense to put your efforts into college and public radio first, and then worry about commercial radio.

The Importance of Radio Airplay

Almost every college in the US has a student-run radio station. They range from one-watt, carrier current stations which can only be heard on campus, to 100,000-watt stations with a range or broadcast radius of over 100 miles. The one thing they have in common is that they will broadcast music from unknown, unproven bands and artists. Also, most college stations have dozens of different specialty shows that feature almost every style of music to match the diversity of the student body. The listeners of these shows are devoted music fans, and are probably your biggest potential audience. In recent years, the major corporate labels have pumped millions of dollars of advertising and promotion into the college market in an attempt to influence what gets played. Take one look at today’s college radio top 10 and you’ll realize that they’ve succeeded, to a degree. There are still hundreds of independent labels getting airplay all over the country, and some compete directly with the major label releases in this regard. Fortunately, college radio still remains more about the music, thus keeping the playing field level.

Figure 9.1 Professional Radio Mic

For the independent artist, getting college (or any) radio airplay is extremely important. Getting your music heard across the country will open substantial opportunities related to exposure and sales. If your goal is to garner a major label deal, these labels pay close attention to the college charts and use them as a prospecting sheet for new bands. CMJ is the number one source for the introduction of new music releases and independent artists on the rise. Although achieving chart debut on one of CMJ’s many charts requires cumulative spins/airplay on perhaps 50 to 150 individual stations, it is not difficult to attain, especially with a good radio campaign. Playlists from the stations that are playing your record are also an impressive addition to your press kit. They are necessary to convince distributors to carry your music, as well as persuade commercial stations to give you a shot. If you want to do a nationwide tour or sell your records to stores in other parts of the country, you need to be getting some sort of radio airplay, period.

Industry Trades

There are several publications that keep track of music getting played on the radio. Among them are Billboard magazine, College Music Journal (CMJ), Hits Daily Double magazine, Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB) and Variety. Stations report their top 20 or 30 songs (based on spin count) to these magazines, which compile the data into national radio charts. They also accept advertising, and a call or letter to any of the above will get you a sample copy and ad rates.

These trade publications are read by music directors who decide what music gets played. Program directors, on the other hand, decide when and how often it gets played. DJs play their own personal choices along with a playlist determined by the managing director and program director and other record labels. Advertisements placed in these publications are different than ads in consumer magazines, and should be targeted directly at the radio station personnel (e.g., “The new single from band X, on your desk now! Play it!”). These ads should be timed to appear when your record arrives at the station and for several weeks after. This will help to distinguish your release from the dozens of others that stations receive each week. If it’s a great ad, it can generate airplay and interest from stations, distributors, etc. These publications also print directories of bands and labels, so ask them for information on how to be included for listing.

Billboard

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and it is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts and tracks the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. The two most notable charts are the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is based on physical sales, digital sales and radio airplay; and the Billboard 200, the corresponding chart for album sales.

Billboard is what I consider the bible of the music industry. It is very influential in impacting music, reaching key executives and tastemakers in and around the music business through Billboard magazine, Billboard.biz, Billboard Conferences, Billboard Bulletin and other targeted newsletters, and millions of music fans through Billboard.com and Billboard Events. The Billboard brand is built on its exclusive charts and unrivaled reporting on the latest news, issues and trends across all genres of music. Billboard receives hundreds of millions of brand impressions daily through many strategic relationships with major companies across various industries. These relationships leverage Billboard’s brand recognition, proprietary chart data and information resources to develop products, live events and print, television, radio, digital and mobile platforms. In addition to North America, Billboard operates businesses in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Billboard is owned by Prometheus Global Media, a diversified company with leading assets in the media and entertainment arenas, including: music (Billboard and its related conferences and events, including the Billboard Latin Music Awards), entertainment (The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, ShowEast, Cineasia and CineEurope) and advertising and marketing (Adweek, Adweek Conferences and The CLIO Awards).

FMQB

FMQB (Friday Morning Quarterback) services music and radio industries with unique high-quality content, insightful articles and news. It was founded in 1968 by owner/publisher/radio-TV personality Kal Rudman and has established itself as the premiere destination for music and radio industry professionals. FMQB is read by over 10,000 industry professionals and reaches over 3.5 million hits per month with over 300,000 visitor sessions through its website. The plus side to using FMQB service, is the fact that it has an exclusive industry database of over 5,000 music and radio professionals. In the past five years, an increasing number of general consumers have discovered FMQB, and that trend multiplies exponentially each month. FMQB has quickly become a site for music exploration and discovery. Its constituency is an ideal blend of industry pros and general music and radio enthusiasts. Through FMQB Productions, FMQB is also renowned for its unique National Radio Series of one-hour specials dedicated to major artists and the world premiering new music from forthcoming albums and DVD collections. These one-hour radio specials are produced in their entirety by FMQB and are exclusive rights of FMQB and its partner music labels who participate in the production of the content. FMQB’s state-of-the-art electronic services and industry-renowned new media department has placed the company at the forefront of artist imaging, branding and advertising. FMQB’s vast list of clients, both in the music and radio industries, provides premium opportunities for third-party clients to experience rewarding branding partnerships. FMQB is the connector to artists of all contemporary genres. FMQB is also the conduit to active consumers of all contemporary radio formats nationally.

Hits Daily Double

Hits Daily Double focuses on all musical styles for retail and radio charts with over 700 radio station reporters. They are typically the source that most publishers get their favorite artist’s first-week album sales predictions and numbers from. The Hits Daily Double website, www.hitsdailydouble.com, is very informative and is a music industry news authority for American music.

College Music Journal

CMJ (College Music Journal) focuses on a professional weekly version (available by subscription only) and a consumer monthly version (available on some newsstands). You can get a feel for CMJ by looking at their site, but most of the real material is in the magazine only. Your promoter should provide you with all the CMJ info you need.

CMJ used to list (on a weekly basis, in the back of the magazine) a huge number of playlists of individual stations around the US. These lists, being that they were from college, community and NPR stations, actually showed music from new artists. CMJ stopped listing these playlists in January 2004, and now only offer them as a pay service in the “industry” section of their site.

According to CMJ (Top 200 Charts) about 75% is alternative music. Indeed, the first chart we want to look at (and the main chart in CMJ) is the “Top 200,” which are 200 listings of deep alternative charting artists (compared to the 40 or 50 of other charts). Two hundred might seem like a lot, but on any given week, over 2,000 artists are attempting to chart (and don’t). There are about 1,000 college stations that are eligible to send their playlists to CMJ to be included in the Top 200 chart. About 350 to 600 do it on any given week.

It works like this: A college radio station’s programming is made up of many one-hour segments, each one being programmed by a student who is taking a broadcasting class, or by a volunteer that comes from the local community. Each student or volunteer presents his or her one-hour playlist to the music director, and the music director then compiles a “top 30” for that station—the 30 artists that are getting the most airplay from the different DJs at the station. The “top 30” for that station is then sent to CMJ. CMJ then averages all the individual top 30 charts for that week, and this is what makes up the Top 200 chart for that week (and that week only). Any top 30 received before or after that week cannot count for that week’s Top 200 chart.

The stations that report to the Top 200 range in size from huge to tiny, and as you might imagine, the larger stations count for more than the smaller ones do. Whether or not you appear on the Top 200 chart is dependent upon how many stations put you on their top 30s that week. To make it onto the bottom of the Top 200 chart, you will need anywhere from 5 to 40 individual top 30s for that week, depending on the time of year.

A companion to the Top 200 chart is the “Radio 200 Adds” chart. An “add” chart is different from an “airplay” chart because at non-commercial radio an “add” just means a station added you to their music library—it does not mean they gave you any spins (airplay). Getting “an add-on” is usually the first step to getting spins, however.

Another companion to the Top 200 chart is the “Core Radio” chart. This chart only accepts playlists from the largest 100 or so college stations; so theoretically, having an artist appear on the “core” chart is worth more than having the artist appear on the “regular” chart. This may or may not be true, and is fuel for further discussions. Your promoter should be able to shed some light on the value of core stations.

The next chart to look at in CMJ is the “Loud Rock” chart. This is where all your metal and hard rock shows up. This chart is divided into the “Loud Rock College” chart and the “Loud Rock Crucial Spins” chart. The “college” one is 40 artists deep, and has a most-added section that is five deep. About 400 stations report to this chart. The “crucial” one is also 40 deep, also with five most-added. The thing that makes the crucial one different is that it is comprised of about 100 commercial specialty shows, instead of college stations.

Next up is the “RPM” chart. This is where your techno/electronic stuff is charted. It is also 40 deep, with five most-added spots. About 350 station report to it.

“Hip Hop” is your next largest chart; all your rap and hip hop fit here. It is also 40 deep with five most-added. About 300 stations report.

“Jazz” is next, also 40 deep with five most-added. About 250 report to it. Note that it is mostly traditional jazz, and not “smooth” jazz.

“New World” is the chart where new age and world music fit in. It is 40 deep, with only a three most-added. It has about 200 reporters.

“AAA” (Adult Album Alternative) is your singer-songwriter chart, and is 40 deep with five adds, but it has only about 50 reporters. This chart has a lot of major labels on it.

“Latin Alternative” is another smaller chart. It is 15 deep with three most-added, and it has only about 20 reporters.

An “Internet Broadcast” chart has recently emerged with about 10 stations.

Radio Promo (The New Trend)

Directories of non-commercial and commercial stations are available from several of the radio trade magazines; however, in today’s world of corporate radio, it is getting more complex to get update information. My strong suggestion is www.radio-locator.com. Incredible! On their website you will find the stations, genres, addresses and websites of the stations, how many watts the station has and more. Get this: you will even be able to view the coverage map of the stations! This is very important, especially if you are trying to “back-door” into a major market through a secondary market. A great example is WZFX, whose coverage area reaches not just Fayetteville, North Carolina but also Raleigh, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is huge because you would reach three markets, if in fact you get airplay. In addition, concentrate your promotional efforts on reporting stations. Airplay in general is good; however, airplay on reporting stations will get you charted and possibly a review in a trade.

Send your release to all the stations that play your style of music. If this proves to be financially problematic, begin by sending it to those stations in your market or region.

Now, the new trend is to email an EPK to the music director of the targeted station. My recommendation for an EPK provider is www.reverbnation.com: (1) It’s FREE; (2) You’re able to load in your brief bio and music samples, pics and more; and (3) It also has a store portal in which you can place “live” URL links of the online retail stores and digital stores that sell your music. This saves you time and money on mailing out CDs, not to mention they probably would get thrown out anyway; second, it shows you have digital and retail distribution by showing your music available on iTunes or Rhapsody. Not only does this support any station’s efforts in promoting a track, it also shows “credibility.”

Radio Touring Support

Most college stations sponsor shows on campus or in their city. If a station is already playing your record, there’s a good chance they would be willing to assist you further by possibly helping you put a show together in their town or even on campus. Always ask about doing an on-air interview or sending in a pre-recorded “liner” (i.e., “Hey ANY University, you’re listening to X Band on WANY.”). Interviews are free airtime and are great advertisements for your show as well as sales support. Many stations will give away copies of your release, so ask about it, and offer to send in promotional materials or even retail CDs for on-air giveaways. For the cost of a few CDs, you’ll be getting airplay, advertising your band or show and gaining a few more fans in that area.

Touring is without a doubt the best way to promote your band. Besides being able to meet and play in front of people you’ve never seen before, touring gives you a captive audience to which you can sell your records, T-shirts and other band merchandise.

Promotional Delivery Trends

DMDS (Digital Media Distribution System) is the new way to send your promotional content (music, video, ads) in full broadcast quality to managed lists of broadcasters, press, music directors, program directors and industry VIPs worldwide. DMDS is a much more effective solution in sending out your media to key decision makers, not to mention it is far less costly versus the high-priced independent radio promoters. You are also able to manage your account in tracking any views or downloads from prospective media contacts. For more info check out www.dmds.com.

Best Time of the Year to Push Radio

A majority of people think that starting the campaign at a certain time of the year when planning the date that their radio campaign will start will make a huge difference in the outcome of the project. It won’t. There are many other far more important factors, and these factors will determine what happens with your release. Things like sequentially pushing a second and third release from the same artist; not abandoning a campaign until awareness has been built; providing the proper packaging; and properly choosing “album versus single.”

Be that as it may, some good things could be had from different times of the year, which will give slight improvements in campaign performance, but this technique will rebound if any one of the above-mentioned points are not already taken care of. The following are the points to consider for the different calendar times.

College Radio Promo Campaigns

College radio is widely viewed by labels, high-end management agencies and distribution companies as the “proving grounds” for independent bands and artists. Not only can an act receive airplay through college radio efforts, but they can also receive comments, interviews and reports with CMJ (College Music Journal). Radio campaigns can result in gaining a following, physical and digital music sales, increased merchandise sales and better turnouts for live performances. Overall, college radio airplay is used as a development tool for up and coming bands and artists in the indie circuit. College radio can have many different types of formats, and the processes for tackling these formats and generating radio play is different for each one. While an indie band or artist can benefit greatly from a well-run college radio campaign, they are not for everybody. It is my experience that to make an impact on airplay, an effective college promotional campaign usually takes three to six months in pushing one song. While there are some 5,300 US colleges and universities (Selingo 2015), there are only around 700 college radio stations that report to CMJ, which adds credibility. My recommendation is to first build a campaign centered on the CMJ reporting stations, which can be found in the Musician’s Atlas database. View: www.musiciansatlas.com.

In addition, cross-reference your college promotional campaign by also sending out your featured single to the 31 Nielsen BDS–monitored college reporting stations listed in the Nielsen’s website “industries/music” section at www.nielsen.com and below:

Internet Radio

Bridge Ratings’ study of 3,500 consumers ages 12 and up determined that the current status/awareness and usage of Internet radio among average Americans have impacted the usage of traditional radio (AM/FM) listening greatly. The results of this study suggest that the two sets of Internet radio-streaming listeners (“Streamies” and “Simuls”) are increasing their use of Internet radio. The study also indicates a positive relationship between those listeners who primarily listen to simulcasts of AM/FM radio streams (Simuls) and their terrestrial listening when not listening on the web. In the following media growth projections, Bridge Ratings estimates based on current trends that Internet radio will have 185 million listeners by 2020, 250 million will still be listening to terrestrial radio, and HD radio will have less than 10 million.

Many college and commercial radio stations also broadcast over the Internet. My favorite website to use for a very comprehensive list of “streaming” radio stations with commercial and college radio is www.radio-locator.com. Internet radio is quickly becoming a great new outlet for independent music to get heard with some Internet radio stations legitimately boasting hundreds of thousands of listeners. You can find a list of Internet radio sites on Yahoo! and get information about submitting your music to them.

Satellite Radio

Satellite is still a very popular broadcast platform for US listeners.

According to SiriusXM.com, the number of consumers listening to satellite radio has steadily increased. During the first quarter of 2016, Sirius XM had 30.1 million subscribers, according to its quarterly earnings report, up 8 percent from 27.7 million during the first quarter of last year (Sirius XM, 2016).

One thing that’s likely been driving continued signups is the widespread availability of satellite in cars. Some 85 million cars had satellite radio capabilities during the first quarter, up 16 percent year-to-year from 73 million (Sirius XM, 2016).

Satellite is very unique platform, as its signals broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than terrestrial radio stations. The service is primarily intended for motorists, as it is available by subscription, mostly commercial-free, and offers subscribers more stations and a wider variety of programming options than terrestrial radio.

The technology allows for nationwide broadcasting so that listeners can hear the same stations anywhere in the country.