General Music Chat

i have tried to release a song in Canada but with no luck through RDR it went to 90 country stations only three of the stations opened the fill the rest never even listened to it.Do i need a radio tracker?Promoter?what did i do wrong? thanks for any help on this matter Cheers!

Get a sex change, show your navel a lot, and learn a bunch of dance moves...

Seriously, man, I feel what you're saying. Commercial music is dying, and it's nearly impossible to get exposure nowadays. I wish I had more to offer ya (I really wish I had some success stories to share with you!), but I'm as in the dark as you are.
The only way a "new" act gets any airplay, or for that matter, attention from the industry, is to be a carbon copy clone of someone who's already there.
My suggestion? Don't worry about it! Play your music anywhere and everywhere that you can get your foot in the door. Build local followings. And stop listening to the radio! Maybe, someday, when no one is listening to those stations (and thus-they have no income), they'll realize that they shouldn't have whizzed all over their audiences.

Damn, I'm bitter.

BTW, man, although I'm not really a country kind of guy, I like your stuff and would like to hear more. You're clearly talented, and I wish you the best!

Bitter, and dead on right. There is much better music floating around this site than on the radio. Most popular "radio" music these days is just regurgitated garbage.
Whoa, I must be bitter too.

Try public radio, AM talk radio, & college stations, 1st. They are more open to new things, no matter the genre.

I've had some songs played locally, & statewide as well, that way. You might also try to get your foot in the door by doing some commercial work for local businesses. I've had some luck doing that, too. Did a few commercials for an open mic for a local bar. It was fun & I was amazed at how low-tech it all was. Still, I got on the air. Ppl heard me & came to the open mic, too.

And don't forget the local TV station. Sometimes they'll have an MTV type of show to showcase local ppl. Go to a smaller station in your area, & offer to start &/or host one of these. I got some air time doing that once on a local Fox station that was just starting up. They later sold out & went to PAX, unfortunately. When they 1st started up, though, I was fortunate enough to write & perform & record the theme song for the Sat morning kids' show, so I was played on TV at least once a week, with my name on the screen's credits, for over 2 years. I also was a guest on the show about three times. You may want to team up with a local pro clown or magician to see if your local station would like to do one of these, too. (Wish I could find those old vids to show you folks. Wouldn't know how to transfer them from VHS, though...maybe my local vid rental store would do it for me. I'll hafta do some searching for that old stuff.)

My theory has always been - the more ppl hear of your stuff, the more they'll want to hear, hopefully. So get out there & play anything & everything that you can, in any setting or venue possible. With any luck, you'll get rewarded with your efforts. (I'm still waiting on my rewards - LOL)

One thing you can do is get involved with a radio stations promotion. Or help them put together a promotion or benefit show.
If it's something that they want to push, they will most likely play your stuff in the promo adds. Maybe just a short sample, but in some cases they will slip you in to late night, regular rotation or something like that.
*In other words... leave them with the notion that its all about them and their image, and how they can profit from the promo or benefit idea.
Basically, how they can look cooler, get more fame, or more money, from using you.

My band back in the day was on 'regular' rotation for about 2 weeks during the nighttime hours, because we were involved in an upcoming new years eve bash/concert that a station was putting on.
Incidentally, radio promotion, even if its just your name mentioned and song snippets played, will do wonders for show attendence.
That new years eve show was beyond fire code all night. As people left, more packed back in. (Of course we werent the only attraction there, but still... you get the point)

Oh by the way, you DO need a nice promo pack to give to these stations and such. Good quality CD with no more than 3 tracks... nice promo photo, contact info, etc.

Cheers.

Info abounds freakin everywhere!

one of the philadelphia stations has a program called "loud and local" where they play local original bands for an hour I think, they give them props and let ppl know where you are gigging, if you give them the info (and your stuff is worth playing, lol)

Look for programs like that with your local radio, on top of the already mentioned AM, public, and college radio stuff.

Kramer is dead on. Find the stations that have programs that are limited to local musicians only.
And definitely promote yourself. If you don't have time, get someone to do it.
Open a myspace account, throw a few of your songs on there and keep sending friend requests to people and you'll get heard. Do the same with the stations. Maybe you should also look into playing local festivals, but you gotta be quick with those. They start booking bands way earlier than the actual gig date.

if you have a decent public radio station nearby listen for a show w/music near yours and contact the DJ. they're usually pretty good about working with local artist. I've played live on public radio several times and it can make a big impact locally (if there is an audience for that particular show)


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