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Songwriting Articles |
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National Airplay
(How to get played on radio & in clubs nationwide)
by Kenny Love
Contrary to popular belief though, radio airplay is a lot easier to get than believed IF you have a great product AND a great cover. You need a great cover, something with special effects perhaps, that will be an "eye-catcher" and make your CD cover stand out from all the tons of recordings that are received at radio.
You need a stand-out cover to get the station personnel to open it. And, that is the major hurtle at radio. Then, once it is opened, you need a great product. Once you have these two areas covered, you simply play the numbers game by getting your recordings to as many stations as possible.
Instead of dropping 300 copies to stations, try to drop as many as 500, or even 1000. This will put you way ahead of the competition, volume-wise. You can get a ton of radio stations on the Internet with complete up-to-date addresses and personnel. One great resource is the Gebbie Press site (http://www.gebbieinc.com/).
Half of your success in getting national radio airplay is making sure your product has the highest professional levels in both competitive audio and visual qualities. Many artists spend a bunch of money on production, even to the point of over-producing, yet, their "visual" package, is sadly lacking and, usually, sacrificed to the point of being generic in appearance.
They somehow believe the sound alone of their recording will do everything for them. Well, if the package is not eye- catching and appealing enough to the radio personnel to even open, how will the recording ever be heard? Think about it!
Because after all the psychological debate has been addressed on what it really takes to get radio airplay, the truth is that music directors and disc jockeys are just as human as everyone else. Aside from the generally- understood technical requirements by both competent engineers, producers, and radio personnel, station crews also like music that not only sounds good while fitting their radio format criteria, but also a product that looks good.
Yet, it is a sad statement to make that, in many cases today, music success of many, if not most, artists, is initially and primarily, judged on their visual appeal, whether it is their product packaging or videos, as well as their audio appeal. I believe this all began in the early '80's when quite a few artists were severely lacking in music proficiency and talent, and required to depend on exciting videos and/or 'looks' to offset their lack (i.e., Milli Vanilli...remember them)?
Another revolutionary thing that has happened in this high- tech world of ours, is that now, there is the capability of downloading your computer music files directly to radio stations. This will save you tons of money in shipping costs, time, and more.
If you would like to go this route, there is, perhaps, the first online company called Liquid Audio (http://www.liquidaudio.com/) that you definitely want to contact about this. Ask for Brady Lahr and tell him you learned of them from Kenny Love. Believe you me, you are going to have fun reviewing this site!.
Since releasing his initial recording, Kenny Love, a former Music Education Major, has had the rare opportunity to work in many varied aspects of the music industry; recording artist, producer, author, journalist, promoter, booking agent, & public relations specialist. He has also appeared in television, radio, & print interviews as a music business consultant. His new report is titled, "Alternative Routes to Recording Success."
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