Is Radio on Repeat or is it Just Me ?
If most of you are like me then I am sure you are asking yourself at times “Didn`t they just play that song”? More and more it seems like radio is playing the same songs over and over again repeatedly. It can`t be that there is not enough new music to be circulated around because let`s face it there are so many new music artists surfacing daily in the world, both signed and unsigned, so there must be an underlying reason why we all can`t get some new tunes. That main underlying reason, my people, why we cannot get some new tunes is called “Giant Media Conglomerate Control” otherwise also known as GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS which are responsible for controlling 90 percent of what the public hears on radio. The big problem with this is that when music outlets in radio are consolidated as they are, it is not the major music acts that suffer but rather the independent music artists who do especially when in order for radio stations to remain popular as many program directors put it, they must continue to play what the majority of listeners like in popular music.
Independent music artists nowadays are lucky if they can get a commercial played on mainstream radio which might I add also costs quite a bit of money depending on how many slots that they would like their radio commercial ad played and how long. Even then though there is the question of whether simply having a commercial radio ad played on the radio can earn an independent music artist a slot into regular rotation on a mainstream radio station? I am sure many of you music buyers reading my blog have flipped to a different radio station at one point or another and heard a quick preview of a new song on your favoruite radio station but chances are it was not an independent music artist, it was an artist you have seen on major websites or major T.V. a hundred times. With that being said, it would only inevitably make a listener more curious or keen to know what they should expect when they hear a new music release preview being aired on their radio station, even if only for 30 seconds from an artist they have been exposed to so much. However maybe it isn`t where these major music artists are being seen on bigger outlets that is making the public more keen to follow their every move but rather how many places and how many times they are exposing themselves through different media.
Last but not least is Clear Channel, the beginning of the end for nearly all independent music artists because though program directors at radio stations probably wish they had more freedom to play what they want, the reality of it is that they do not because Clear Channel Communication just about dictates everything to radio on what to play by the playlist mandated to stations that they must follow. Besides radio commercials, it is Low Power FM and non-commercial radio which will remain the best formats for offering independent music artists a better chance at airplay. If independent music artists Goyte and Macklemore can do it though, than anyone can right?
Right.
To sample some independent music (i.e. mine), go to www.victorsteele.com, and two free tracks will be emailed to you.
