Are you a Canadian artist feeling like you’re screaming into an empty void when it comes to music promotion? The options can feel overwhelming: Spotify playlisting, influencer content, sync licensing. Though options are plentiful, but opportunities can feel scarce. It feels like every promoter wants pre-existing hype behind an artist before they consider featuring them. The problem is, if every avenue is waiting for an already established artist, indie artists building their own hype seem left at a stalemate.
It can take an infinite amount of time and resources for Canadian indie artists to manually:
- Find promotion avenues
- Build contacts in some kind of database (such as Google Sheets or a CRM)
- Reach out to promoters individually
- Play the waiting game hoping to get a response from one out of hundreds or even thousands
Luckily, there are tools out there to simplify the process and give Canadian music artists access to hundreds to thousands (depending on the market & format) of radio programmers, music directors, and radio hosts – all at the click of a button.
In spite of popular belief, radio is still one of the most popular and monetizable sources for independent Canadian music artists. Play MPE’s Caster tool will give you the opportunity to pitch your music to a plethora of radio stations that are legally required to play a certain percentage of Canadian content (CANCON).
WHAT IS CANADIAN RADIO LOOKING FOR?
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Understand Your Genre
It’s important to know your genre, find the stations that play artists like you – and focus on those. Getting radio airplay isn’t about casting the widest possible net. It’s about casting smaller nets designed to catch specific fish. This will be the best use of your time and efforts. Rock stations are never going to play The Weeknd and Pop stations will steer clear from Slipknot.
Even if your music mixes genres, most artists have a style that they lean in towards a little bit more. For example, let’s look at artists that fuse hip-hop and rock. Linkin Park is mostly heard on rock stations whereas Tech N9ne, who often includes rock elements in his music, will more-likely be featured on hip-hop stations.
With that being said, know your genre (and radio format) and only focus on stations meant for your style of music.
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Sell Your Story
We live in an era where music alone no longer sells an artist. Your story and vibe are an equal part of the equation. Make sure you have a tight bio and song description that intrigues the reader. Radio stations get hundreds of submissions per day, what makes you stand out?
Write a tight, concise bio about your mission as an artist. Unless your origin story supports it, curators don’t need to know your whole history. Who are you trying to connect to and why?
If you write a heartbreak pop-song, going into detail about what the song means, who would relate to it and a writing a slight description of it’s sound would get a lot more interest than “Hey, can you check out my new banger?”
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Prepare Your Assets
Now that you have a tight bio and great song description, it’s time to prepare your assets.
A) High quality promotional photos. Don’t use selfies or anything low-res. Use professional artists as inspiration. Your promo photos should match the quality of theirs.
B) Bio. We already covered what this should look like earlier. Just remember to lure the reader in within the first couple of sentences. Otherwise they might not read it at all.
C) Artist highlights (PR and/or one-sheet). This can be big shows, opening slots for established artists or festivals, other times you’ve appeared on the radio or podcasts, magazine/blog articles and reviews, etc. Anything that adds some credit to you as an emerging artist.
D) Tour dates or upcoming shows. Certain stations prioritize local talent or visiting artists. Let programmers know where you’ll be touring, or which venues they can find you at live – they might even mention it to their listeners. Or perhaps do a ticket giveaway!
E) Social media links. Make sure once everything else is set in place, you have an option for them to easily keep up to date with you. Add all of your social media links (Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, YouTube, etc.) to demonstrate that you have a legitimate following online!
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Make Sure Your Track Holds Up Against Other Songs Spinning on the Radio
This is a big one. You never want to send music that feels premature to radio stations. No demos, or amateur-produced home recordings. If you get by with a good story and mission behind your music, the song needs to hold up. Radio stations still have a reputation to hold up and they want to make sure they are only dropping quality music. If they don’t, the listener might change the station.
Even if the song itself is good, if it’s not a quality recording, they will most likely reject your track. If you can’t record in a professional studio, try to prioritize at least getting your songs mixed, mastered and exported as broadcast quality music files (WAVs or AIFFs). In some niche cases, songs that aren’t recorded well could still sneak by (but not on mainstream stations), so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
It’s also worth mentioning that some radio stations won’t play songs with profanity or that are 6 minutes or more in length. If you swear in your music, you might want to have a clean edit handy. Radio pros also recommend having a radio edit option (cut to within 4 minutes duration).
HOW CANADIAN ARTISTS CAN GET INTERNATIONAL RADIO AIRPLAY
Canadian radio is not the only option for Canadian music artists to find their way. Growing locally is great and should be a main focus as you’re growing your music project. That being said, there are a lot of benefits to getting your music heard internationally as well.
Getting international airplay can multiply your speed of growth. Gaining popularity in other markets like Europe or the United States can help you book more shows and tours, as well as drive up your streaming numbers, which is a metric radio promoters also consider when checking out your music.
There’s also an added benefit that other markets could resonate with your music more so than they are domestically. For example, American actor David Hasselhoff’s music project, despite his popularity, had mediocre results in North America. However, his song “Looking For Freedom” reached number one in Germany and Switzerland.
Caster allows you to submit music to both Canadian and international markets with ease. And hey, Play MPE happens to be running a special promotion giving 25% off all International Bundles until the end of summer!
WHY SHOULD CANADIAN ARTISTS USE PLAY MPE’S CASTER TO GET RADIO AIRPLAY?
If you’ve got your genre nailed, your bio tight, and your track sounding radio-ready, the next question is: How do you actually get it in front of the right people as quickly as possible?
This is where Caster comes in. Instead of manually hunting down contacts, crafting individual emails, and hoping someone opens your message, Caster lets you send your music to hundreds (even thousands) of radio stations, curators, and tastemakers in just a few clicks. You can build promo campaigns based on genre, format, or region, allowing you to target Canadian radio or international markets.
An added benefit of Caster is the ability to track data and get charted via Play MPE’s Player (the exclusive software stations use to find new music.) Songs that start getting downloads and streams show up in the Charts and get tagged as Popular. This feature helps more curators discover your release and gives your track an edge.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow outside your home turf, tools like Caster make professional music promotion way more accessible. No label. No industry connects. Just a clear path to getting your music heard.