COMMERCIAL AIRPLAY MYTHS
When talking to people who are launching
their first couple of projects, invariably the
same misunderstood points come up
concerning commercial regular-rotation
airplay.
Here are some common myths:
DJ’s play the records
This only applies to non-commercial radio,
and specialty/mixshow radio. The majority of
people in the U.S. listen to commercial
regular-rotation radio, and on these stations,
the DJs have no say at all in what is going to
be played (unless, in the case of a smaller
station, the DJ is also the PD). So, the biggest
pitfall to avoid is asking a DJ at a commercial
station “Can I give you my CD for possible
rotation?” The DJ is not allowed to say “No”,
and he/she is probably not going to explain
that only the PD can approve regular rotation.
The DJ is just going to say “OK”.
Why do they play it?
Good songs do not mystically spread to other
stations. Every single song you hear (or every
syndicated program you hear) on commercial
regular-rotation radio is on that station
because of layers of promotion and
marketing. The song you hear was the one
that made it, it beat out the other 300 songs
that were going for adds that week. What you
don’t hear are the endless phone calls, faxes,
trade ads, personal meetings, consultant
recommendations, call-out research, and other
things which went into getting the station to
add the record. The station owners make it a
requirement that DJs make it sound like they
picked the music themselves.
College or specialty/mix-show will
expand to commercial
Just because you do well on non-commercial
or specialty/mixshow radio, it does not mean
anything will happen on commercial regular-rotation radio. Nothing at all will happen at
commercial unless a separate, higher-level
campaign is put into place to take the record
into regular rotation. The pitfall here is that a
listener will hear something on college, and
then a month later hear it on commercial, and
conclude that the college caused the
commercial to happen. The listener did not
know that both campaigns were in place
simultaneously, and the college simply went
for adds a month earlier.
You have to be signed
Untrue, being signed is only a signal to the
stations that the basic marketing practices are
going to be done right. If you have the budget,
you can duplicate the marketing practices of
larger labels, provided you know how.
The band Creed set a good example, of
putting their $5 million marketing dollars into
the right place.
Request calls will help
They won’t hurt but your time is better spent
doing other things, like inviting people to
your gigs. Stations know which calls are real,
and which are bands and their friends.
Stations have consultants and seminars which
cover this one topic.
I can’t get airplay without
distribution
It depends on the size of radio that you are
going after. Smaller commercial regular-rotation stations in smaller markets won’t
make this too much of a sticking point,
especially if you have a powerful radio
campaign going, or if you are doing great gigs
in their city, or if you have great college or
specialty/mixshow results. But the larger
stations... which you can’t work anyway until
you do the smaller ones... won’t touch a
project that has no distribution.
Airplay without gigs
Again, it depends on the size of radio that you
are going after. Not being able to gig is a
serious handicap at any station, but you can
overcome it in smaller markets with intense
radio promo, press, sales, and non-comm
results.
Non-monitored stations are of no
use
Non-monitored stations are of no use only on
the Billboard , R&R , and the seven Album
Network mag charts. But FMQB , CMJ and all
specialty/ mixshow charts are compiled
manually. Since you need to start off on these
smaller charts first, this works out just fine.
INDEPENDENT RADIO
PROMOTER CHECKLIST
If you are hiring a promoter to push your
artist to radio, here are a few things you can
consider which will help you have the greatest
chance of success (and when I say promoter, I
mean an airplay promoter, not a club or
booking promoter).
The big concern with this
process is, if you choose the wrong person(s)
to promote your artist and end up with bad
results, you can’t just go back and do it over
again. That’s it for that CD (at those stations).
That CD is now “an old project” at those
stations, and you can’t go back to them until
you have a new release.
Overview
Using a friend: Non-experienced friends
sometimes offer to promote artists to radio for
free, or “a few dollars”. This is fine as long as
you use them for the right tasks, like helping
with the mailing. If you are working college
radio, in the 20-30 station range, then they
could make some calls too. If they try to call
commercial radio, they will probably stumble
after just a couple of weeks. And forget about
any capacity of doing re ports or trade charts.
Moonlighter: Staff promoters at major labels
sometimes offer to “help you out on the side”
for a fee. On their days off, or on the
weekend, they say they will “make some calls
for you”. What happens is that their company
finds out and disallows it, or the person gets
tied up on their days off, and can’t do it.
Either way, it is a conflict of interest for them.
Publicity: Public relations people sometimes
offer to work an artist to radio for airplay. But
don’t, however, confuse PR with airplay. A
real radio campaign has nothing to do with
publicity. They are two separate techniques,
with different contacts, lead times,
terminology, call frequency, and so on. A
person who is good at one is usually terrible
at the other. This is why they are always
separate departments at labels.
Station People: Station employees are
sometimes recruited to work an artist, and
will tell you that “they know what stations
want.” This sounds convincing, but in reality,
taking the calls (which they do/did at the
station), and making the calls, are very
different. Until station people are trained (at a
label or indie), they make poor promoters.
Big clients: The most-often used sales
technique of promoters is to tell you they
have worked “some big artist”, and that this
would benefit you. Ask them what they mean
by “worked”. Were they solely responsible
for charting that artist? Probably not, more
than likely, the promoter was probably just
partnered with a label or another promoter, or
worse, was just an assistant or sidekick.
Again, they will NOT tell you they were not
the only promoter. You will have to ask the
artist or the artist’s management directly.
What to look for in a
Promoter
Making contact: Some Indies are always
there when you call, others are never there.
The ones who never answer that is usually a
bad sign. If you thought it was difficult
reaching them before you hire them, just wait
until after they get your money. Also be wary,
if they say they give clients (and potential
clients) a different phone number to call than
the one they give the stations. It is more likely
you will never get that person on the phone
when you do need them.
Reports: Reports are a requirement that well-organized promoters provide to you. Without
a report, there is no other way you are going
to be able to understand what is going on with
your airplay each week... much less someone
else such as stores, papers, clubs etc.
Office: If the promoter does not have an
office (even a small one), then you will be
competing with things like the promoter’s
sleep, TV, neighbors, dinner, etc.
Assistants: If a promoter handles more than
one genre of music at the same time, or if the
promoter does college radio at all, then
assistants are mandatory. The phone calls
have to be made, and no one person can call
more than 150 stations a week, do reports,
faxes, emails and talk to you when you call!
College Radio: College should be considered
for every campaign, even if you are doing
high-level commercial radio. College radio is
relatively inexpensive, and will allow you to
create some good looking charts and reports
to show retail, press and clubs.
Faxes: Serious promoters use faxes. Faxing is
simply the fastest way to get a one-page
synopsis of info to the stations... with pictures
if needed. They are not cheap, but a good
promoter should still include these faxes.
References: Any promoter worth
consideration will have a list of past clients.
What you are looking for, is a promoter with
projects that are on your (independent) level.
A list of “big” clients, doesn’t necessarily
better, since a promoter used to having
massive help from major label staff
promoters, national tours, retail promotions,
advertising etc., will not have these with your
project. You need a promoter who is set up to
work with indie projects like yours.
Do your Homework: The “major label”
promoter was actually not the promoter that
worked the major projects in the first place.
They were probably just assistants in the
office, or were mail people, or more often
than not, they were just outright lying. It
happens all the time. Ask the artist directly to
find out.
by Bryan Farrish, © 2010 All Rights Reserved.
Used By Permission
