According to a recent survey, independent musicians have no more access to major market radio now than they did before major networks agreed to settle over charges of payola. What I can’t figure out is why, in the year 2008, when radio is a declining force in the way Americans learn about new music, do [...]
David Byrne’s Tracking Webcasting Fees
April 17, 2007 By Leave a Comment
From David Byrne’s Journal this morning, in reference to the recent ruling that the copyright panel in charge of setting webcasting licensing fees is refusing to hear further arguments: Here are some links/articles on the web radio issue that was decided yesterday: The Death of Web Radio? [Business Week Online]Net Radio Operators Lose Appeal Over [...]
Rules of Engagement for Radio and Independent Labels
March 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment
A2IM has published the “Rules of Engagement” document that evolved from the settlement agreement with the country’s four biggest radio chains. In some ways, it feels like a throwback to twenty years ago. In the pre-web days, to bend the ear of a music director, you had to call the station during “office hours,” a [...]
KZLA Format Change: “We Work for Our Advertisers”
August 19, 2006 By 2 Comments
As someone who spent more than a decade working in radio, I often confuse folks in my seminars and my mentoring program when I tell them not to spend a whole lot of time worrying about getting played on the radio. That’s because a little over a decade ago, radio shifted from being about breaking [...]
Radio Consolidation Causes Unemployment
August 11, 2006 By 1 Comment
The guys at MusicBiz.com, with whom I usually agree on a lot of things, are taking an oddly defensive tone to the recent report from the Future of Music Coalition exploring how government-sanctioned consolidation has choked off a once vibrant industry. [Note: How I wish MusicBiz.com would add permalinks -- by Tuesday, their post will [...]
CD Baby Ripping Off Artists?
August 10, 2006 By 22 Comments
Either someone’s out astroturfing for a competitor of CD Baby, or somebody must have had a freakishly screwed up order. Someone calling themselves John Miller is sending e-mail and posting forum and blog comments to just about every independent music website they can find, claiming that they’re starting up a class action lawsuit against Derek [...]
Music Business Radio: Street Teams and Growing Audiences
August 10, 2006 By Leave a Comment
In all the commotion around our move, I fear I neglected to highlight the episode of Music Business Radio that I did with David Hooper at the studios of Lightning 100 over in Nashville. We ended up spending most of our time talking about how street teams can make or break your music business career. [...]
Public Radio Not Dictated by the Public
March 2, 2006 By 1 Comment
Have you noticed lately that no matter what station you tune your radio to, you just keep hearing the same songs over and over again? There is a great and looming danger that America is losing any appreciation for quality music. These days, it seems everything is mass-produced under the direction of a very small [...]
Getting Airplay
February 21, 2006 By Leave a Comment
