Radio Station | New Industry Tips

The Science of Radio: Understanding the Format

March 14, 2011 By katie 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: airplay, Bigg DM, core djs, derek jurand, dj, DJs, dmj music group, mix shows, radio, radio format, radio play, radio station, science of radio

ASK AN EXPERT – Timing Your Radio Release

April 4, 2010 By Nick Leave a Comment

Radio Station Many people, when planning the date that their radio campaign will start, think that starting the campaign at a certain time of the year will make a huge difference in the outcome of the project. It won’t. There are many other factors which are far more important, 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 vs. single”.

That being said, there are some good things which can be had from different times of the year, which will give slight improvements in campaign performance, BUT, this technique will backfire 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:

JANUARY THROUGH APRIL: Many folks think that this is the best time for indie releases. Advertising on commercial radio certainly is cheapest, and most major labels are taking a short break before starting heavy promotion again (but you won’t be able to tell this by listening to the radio… you’ll just hear the same number of songs. What you don’t hear is how many releases are being PUSHED to radio.) Advertising in most trades is also cheapest at this time. So commercial regular rotation, or commercial specialty/mixshow, is a favorite at this time.

For college radio, obviously, most stations are in session during this period. Don’t worry about spring break; there is no national “one week” that every school is closed. Instead, spring break varies from school to school, with some doing it in mid February, and others doing it as late as mid May.

MAY THROUGH AUGUST: For both commercial and college radio, this is a good time to use your radio campaign to help you set up a tour.

For college radio, this the easiest time to chart, since college stations are getting the fewest number of releases. Many people think you can’t work a record to college during the summer… not true. You do lose about 150 stations during the summer, but about 650 of them stay on (many of them the bigger ones which broadcast to the whole town), and thus a favor is almost being done for you since many of the smaller ones have been removed.

Also with college, when the kids go home for summer, they still want to hear non-commercial radio; so they simply tune into the college station that is in their hometown.

The biggest advantage of summer college radio is that the CMJ charting is easiest here, due to the lower amount of competition from real labels.

SEPTEMBER THROUGH DECEMBER: For commercial radio, this is the time to work radio in order to sell lots of records. (That is, provided you are set-up and experienced enough, and have enough of a sales staff, to sell twenty or thirty thousand records.) This is the technique used by larger labels to sell most of their product.

For college, they are of course back in session, so for many artists that is all that needs to be said… college it’s going to be! Even though college radio receives many times more CDs in the fall than it does during the summer, many folks are going to push here nevertheless.

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is actually a great time to start your college project, because the bulk of CDs have already arrived and passed, and for about three weeks there is very little competition again. You simply carry your project through the holiday, and start back up after the new year.

Bottom line: You can find something good about any time of the year to start your project.

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, Media, radio, Radio Marketing Tagged With: advertising, college radio, commercial radio, major label, mixshow, planning, radio, radio campaign, radio spins, radio station, record labels, record promotion, release, single, song, song promotion, timing

ASK AN EXPERT – Creating a Story for Commercial Radio

March 8, 2010 By Smilow 1 Comment

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: airplay, cd, commercial radio, label, magazine, mass media, Media, miami, newspapers, p1, p2, p3, performances, promoter, radio, radio promoter, radio spins, radio station, retail, sales, seattle, spins, star, tv, venue

ASK AN EXPERT – Understanding Mixshow Radio

February 24, 2010 By Smilow 1 Comment

MixShowGoldBlack-1 A specialty show or a mixshow is a one or two hour show on a commercial station, usually late at night, and many times on the weekends, which plays music that the station normally does not play. A disadvantage of these shows is that you get only one or two spins per week on any particular station (which is even less than some college stations give you.) The advantage of these shows, however, is:

(1) The number of listeners to these commercial stations is much higher than with college stations, since commercial stations have promotional budgets which they use to attract listeners (billboards, vans, bus benches, TV ads, etc.)

(2) Commercial stations have a steady listenership level year round (compared to college,) although listenership does peak somewhat in the spring and summer because of increased outdoor activities.

(3) A song’s prominence on commercial stations is higher, due to most commercial stations’ higher visibility.

(4) An often-overlooked asset of specialty/mixshows on commercial radio is the fact that the folks who host these shows, many times also sit in on the music meetings with the station’s music director and program director. So if your long term goal is to be in regular rotation on these stations, the specialty/mixshow route is a great preliminary step.

Speaking of long term goals on commercial radio, if you envision any type of radio advertising or indie promotion for your project, then starting out with the specialty/mixshow circuit (on these same stations) might be a good idea.

The specialty and mixshow circuit is about as far as you can expect to get without getting into some heavy commercial promotions. With college radio, heavy promotion is not required, but since specialty and mixshows are on commercial stations, you should start looking into serious promotion at this point.

Specialty/mixshows are generally alternative, rock, techno, dance, urban, jazz or blues, and there are separate charts for each of these. Relative to college radio, specialty/mixshows are fewer in number (usually less than 100 per genre,) but are more difficult to obtain. Relative to regular rotation on commercial stations, specialty/mixshows are far less costly to work.

Regarding your CD type, specialty/mixshows require fully-manufactured CDs (with lithographed graphics)…not the computer-printed CDRs. Fortunately, however, CDRs can still be used for college radio.

How do you choose between promoting to specialty/mixshow and college radio? Well first of all, larger labels would do both, and possibly commercial regular rotation on top of this. But most brand new projects will need to choose between specialty and college. Here’s how (genre permitting)…

Have limited CDs? Go with specialty…the most you’ll need will be 100 for a charting campaign.

Have only CDRs? Go with college…they’ll take almost anything.

Hate commercialism? Go with college.

Wanna be visible to larger labels? Go with college…you’ll generate more “paper” chart results to put in your press kit. For the same number of dollars, you won’t get as far in commercial.

Wanna build your own label, sell records in stores, and add other artists long-term? Go specialty…it will prepare you for commercial regular rotation…which is what reaches the most listeners (and helps you sell records, provided you have a retail promoter/salesperson.)

Wanna do some regional appearances? Do college, because there are many more stations to pick from in any particular region. But if you are going to eventually try commercial regular rotation, then go ahead and choose specialty now.

These are, of course, just rough guidelines, but the most important aspect to any radio campaign is that whatever you choose, stick with it and see it through to the end. Stopping a 10 week campaign at 5 weeks (or an 8 week campaign at 4 weeks) will guarantee that you will get almost zero 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, Marketing, Monetize Music, radio, Radio Marketing Tagged With: cd, college radio, commercial station, listeners, mixshow, music, radio, radio promotion, radio station, regular rotation, specialty show

ASK AN EXPERT – Commercial Radio Stations – Part 2

February 21, 2010 By Smilow Leave a Comment

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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: airplay, airplay promoters, artists, cd mailer, commercial radio, independent labels, mixshow, music director, program director, promoters, promotion, radio, radio promotion, radio station, radio teams, specialty show, station advertising, trade ads

ASK AN EXPERT – Introduction To Radio Promotions

February 13, 2010 By Smilow 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