{"id":1910,"date":"2014-06-12T10:51:52","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T17:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2014-06-12T10:51:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T17:51:52","slug":"why-indies-should-still-care-about-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/why-indies-should-still-care-about-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Indies Should Still Care About Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re an independent artist or signed to an independent label, you\u2019re sure to have a lot on your plate already. Between booking shows, debating merch, planning your next big marketing move, juggling social media-insanity, oh yeah, and writing new material, the last thing you want to add to your plate is a radio campaign. Indies have all but abandoned this once-career-establishing source. Some say it\u2019s because their audience isn\u2019t listening to radio anymore, some say it\u2019s because radio is only for Top 40 major label artists, and others simply don\u2019t have time or resources to even consider it in their marketing mix.\u00a0I\u2019m here to tell you: don\u2019t abandon radio.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though many people, particularly teens, are\u00a0listening<\/em>\u00a0to music via YouTube and other on-demand platforms, discovery tends to happen through other channels. Just two years ago, in 2012,\u00a0Nielsen reported that\u00a048% of people surveyed discovered music most often through the radio<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(compared to YouTube\u2019s 7%). Today, in 2014, Nielsen reports that\u00a0radio listenership is on the rise<\/a>\u00a0from 243.7 million in 2013 to 244.4 million weekly listeners in 2014. They cite the localization of stations and their curated content as a key factor to becoming so easily interwoven in peoples\u2019 lives\u2026something to keep in mind come tour time.<\/p>\n

<\/span>I\u2019m not here to tell you \u201cdrop everything and focus all of your time and money on radio.\u201d I\u2019m here to tell you that radio is not dead, DJs are still the tastemakers in every town, and radio still has the power to bring artists of all genres to the next level in their careers, at every level.<\/p>\n

In my experience of working with incredible artists, labels and distribution companies, I\u2019ve seen the difference that radio can make \u2013 taking unknowns to globally recognized names<\/strong>\u00a0(yes, there are many more millions of people listening internationally). Mumford & Sons, Phoenix, Childish Gambino, Robert DeLong, these are artists that Glassnote Records took way up the charts in both airplay and sales by focusing much of their efforts on radio in every single market (touring also being a major factor). You can\u2019t turn on a college radio station or satellite radio channel without hearing Arcade Fire (#1 on Billboard), Grizzly Bear (#7 on Billboard), First Aid Kit (#12 on Billboard Independent), Passion Pit (#4 on Billboard) and so on.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t give up on radio because there are millions of people still listening, still trusting and still anxiously awaiting the next \u201cnew thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you get your music on the radio?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Depends on your resources.<\/p>\n

1. Radio marketing services such as\u00a0Pirate!<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0The Syndicate<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0Some publicists offer this service in varying degrees as well, but relationships are key here.<\/p>\n

2. Radio mailing services<\/strong>\u00a0offered through boutique distribution companies for an additional fee (single or album-based).<\/p>\n

3. Print out a\u00a0one-sheet<\/a>, get a box of promos, and start looking up key stations<\/strong>\u00a0(Will you be touring there? Do you have sales there? Is there an influential tastemaker station there?<\/em>) to mail or digitally deliver your music to.<\/p>\n

* Helpful hint #1:<\/strong>\u00a0your one-sheet should tell readers immediately why they should care to listen to your music.<\/p>\n

* Helpful hint #2:<\/strong>\u00a0if you want to confirm that someone has listened to your music, pick up the phone and call them.<\/p>\n

Have you gotten your music on the radio as an independent artist? Did you hire a promoter, or handle the radio promotion yourself? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/p>\n

Via CDBaby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re an independent artist or signed to an independent label, you\u2019re sure to have a lot on your plate already. Between booking shows, debating merch, planning your next big marketing move, juggling social media-insanity, oh yeah, and writing new material, the last thing you want to add to your plate is a radio campaign. Indies have all but abandoned this once-career-establishing source. Some say it\u2019s because their audience isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[223,308],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-tips","tag-marketing-tips","tag-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}