Radio is Real: get your music to radio contacts everywhere
Ah, the good ole days.
I know this is a music blog, but I have to admit, sometimes I long for the days when I could pitch someone on the phone rather than email. Write a thank you letter after a get together, have an in-person meeting, not a zoom… I could just turn the dial on the radio and get hooked on a new song.
Wait – that one I still do!
Curators be curating
I will admit to a bias – I host a radio show on SiriusXM (plug: it’s called WHOOOSH! and it airs on Sundays at 7pm on SiriusXM’s Spectrum Channel 28).
One of the best parts of my job, besides having a rad co-host, are the artists who reach out to tell us how much it meant to them that we played their song. And we played it because we LIKED IT, not because someone paid us to playlist it. My co-host doesn’t do “favors”. When I get contacted (“hey, we worked together at XXX and now I am managing a new band…”), I’m always upfront, saying that if Simon doesn’t like it, it doesn’t go on the show. That’s not to say their song wouldn’t be perfect on another station. But two real people are curating this show, and we don’t care who you know, or are on tour with. It has to strike a chord with us (pun intended!) or we don’t put it on.
Streams versus Spins
Not to put down streaming, which can definitely be effective in some cases, but radio spins just mean more. It means that a station is actively supporting this track and want others to hear it too. It means that some music lovers still want to be turned on to bands they’ve never heard before. Even if the track sounds nothing like what they usually listen to. Read that sentence again. Radio can play a song that’s nothing like music you’ve listened to before and grab you! How can people be exposed to new music when AI enabled algorithms on streaming services suggest music that sounds just like music they’ve heard before?
Be heard by real contacts
Play MPE helps artists send their music to real people: verified music industry radio promoters, label execs, music supervisors, tastemakers and more. Caster services people who all have the same goal – to discover good music. Some want to put songs on the radio, others put songs in a television show. The outcome is always the same – a real live person, not a bot, makes these choices. Airplay promotion is one of the smartest investments an artist can make in their music career. Getting a song played on radio increases an artists’ visibility and reach to new audiences.
Once your music is up on Caster, users can track the airplay with MTR, a super helpful radio tracking tool that let’s musicians know where and when their song is performing best. MTR currently tracks radio spins at over 5000+ stations in North America! We’ve heard from loads of musicians that being able to see where their songs are being played has helped them immensely.
Ride the airwaves
Let’s be real – when a song is played on the radio for the first time, it’s an event. Ask any notable artist, and I bet they can all tell you the first time they heard their song on the radio and how exciting it was. It’s a milestone.
I am not one for nostalgia, but as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Radio is real and airplay is still one of the best ways a musician or a band can get momentum behind their song. All it takes is one station to get behind a song, and one venue in that town to book you – and you’re off!