The "Road to Radio" Introduction

Cutting a new CD, taking some great pictures for the cover, designing the inserts and sending it all to a replication house does not mean you are ready to start soliciting radio for “adds.” It is a start, in fact a good one. Many up and coming independent artists and record labels try to solicit radio program directors and DJs once they record the first song that might make the album thinking, “It’s a platinum hit!!!!.” Reality tells us that the first song may be an album filler or it may not even make the final album. The first song is exciting. It’s a dream finally being realized, it can be held in your hands once the engineer burns it to a CD-R, it can be played in your car stereo, and the song can be played for friends and family gaining many pats on the back, but is it really a “hit song?”

The “Road to Radio” is a journey, it’s not a sprint and it’s not the end game. Remember, radio is only another marketing tool within your marketing arsenal. It is the last tool you use when pushing a new album in most cases! Going to radio with a new single takes time, planning, preparation, execution, and most important, follow through marketing. It is a long journey that like a marathon runner has to be developed over time to be able to get the finish line. Going to radio too soon can be a career killer for the new artist or record label.

Most folks know that payola is now legal.... well they call it “buying into the marketing department,” but it’s still buying time so that an artist’s music will be played. Payola! Too many up and coming artists and independent record labels “buy” into the hype that if they would just get their song on the radio they will sell big. Yes, indeed, radio can drive sales but are you ready for it? Let’s say you buy into radio, at about $80,000 for eight to ten weeks of top 20 rotation. (Not cheap.) You get your fifteen minutes of fame. Fans start to like the music and go online to find out more about you. Do you have a website? A way to buy the CD? Oh, is the CD completed and replicated yet? Your new fans can’t find info online about you so they call the radio station and request information. The DJs have not heard anything about you, they don’t know of a website to get information, so now they have angry listeners. The potential fans get upset because they invested their time and effort into listening to your music, but now they can’t buy the music, they can’t learn more about you. They walk away! The DJs walk away because they don’t want the calls they know they can’t answer. You just wasted $80,000.00 so you could tell all your friends and family your song was on the radio...... Simplified version, yes, but it happens daily, in every radio market across the country, and the radio owners love it! Why, because they know if they got you to give them $80,000.00 once, they can do it again!

Now, look at the example again and ask yourself these questions: Do you have a full CD ready or are you trying to go to radio with your first song recorded? Do you have a website where potential fans can learn more about you or buy the CD? Do you have enough “information” online so that DJs and Program Directors can research you to find out information to use in their “on-air” shows for talking points when they play the song? Do you have a team in place that knows how to call radio on “call days” and push the Program Directors to “add” the song to regular rotation once the “marketing money” dries up? Do you have the money in the budget to do a radio promo tour to support the DJs with interviews and keep your face in their face to remind them you are real and are out pushing the album making them want to play the music? Do you have a fan club or call center that can be activated to start requesting your song at radio in each market you “bought” to create demand at the radio station with the DJs and Program Directors?  Do you have a tracking mechanism in place so that you know what your efforts are getting you back in returns? Do you know how to use data collected from Program Directors when the weekly calls are made? Do you have a tour promoter to book shows in the regions where you are receiving radio play? Do you have relationships with bloggers, regional tastemakers, press, entertainment TV reporters, and other entertainment media outlets so that you can take advantage of the radio play locally, regionally, and nationally? Do you have a publicist that can take the radio play you are receiving and turn it into magazine reviews, red carpet appearances, and national buzz?

If you answered no to any of the above questions you are not ready for radio. Really! Every single one of the topics covered in the questions must be in place and ready before you even think about radio. These topics are the basis of a well thought out marketing plan. Looking back at the questions and considering the topics covered should make you see why radio is the last thing that is attempted when executing a well thought out marketing plan. Remember, radio is not the end game. Selling units (CDs) is the end game. Everything you do to get the word out about your new CD should be for one reason: selling units. If you are selling units you will be played on the radio.

Listener demand will guarantee radio play. Program Directors and DJs want to play what their listeners want to hear. It keeps them in a job. Remember, commercial radio has nothing what so ever to do with playing music. Really, commercial radio is about selling products for their advertisers. Playing music is an attraction to get listeners to hear commercials that will make them go buy products, services, or merchandise from the advertisers. That means DJs want to play music that will make more listeners tune into their radio station. More listeners means DJs get to keep their jobs. Fewer listeners means the station owner is looking for another DJ so the advertisers will be happy! If you are selling product that means the general public wants to hear your music. It means listeners will request your song on radio. It means Program Directors and DJs will seek you out and try to find out more information about you and your music. If you answered no to the questions above, you can now start to see why there is a process to go through before you even try to get your music played on radio. Again, radio is not the end game.... selling units is the end game.

To get your music on radio you must have a marketing plan and execute that plan. Not because radio Program Directors are going to ask to see your plan, but because radio Program Directors will find your music if you are working your marketing plan. The “Road to Radio” is based on a good marketing plan that has several campaigns in which each campaign builds upon the last to create buzz, demand, unit sales and ultimately radio play. In future articles you will learn about and execute each campaign of the “Road to Radio” marketing plan including:

• Awareness Campaigns
  

• Online Radio Campaigns
  

• Podcast/Press Campaigns
  

• Retail Campaigns
  

• Promotional Tour Campaigns
  

• Publicist Campaigns

• Radio Campaigns

For now, go online and prepare for the first campaign you will need to master: The Awareness Campaign. Find as much information as you can. Spend time researching, reading, and looking how other local, regional, and national artists and independent record labels are getting the word out about their music and artists. Research is the key to a good marketing plan. The more information you have the better you will understand the concepts presented in each of the follow-up articles on the “Road to Radio.”

Peace,
Jai
www.JaiHutcherson.com
“Love the Music in Yourself, Not Yourself in the Music!”