Airplay 101

By Bryan Farish
 
What are your goals? If you were going to build a restaurant, you'd have some type of goal or plan before construction began, right? If you were going to buy a car, you'd have some type of goal or plan as to what you wanted, how much the payments would be, what the color would be, etc., right? Well for some reason, artists never have a goal for their music (much less radio), other than to "get it out there", or to "do as much as possible". Can you imagine telling a restaurant contractor to build you "as much restaurant as possible", or telling a car dealer that you want "as much car as possible"?     

When you have a numerical goal (any numerical goal), the best way to achieve that goal is to minimize anything else that might stand in the way of that goal. If your restaurant goal was to be able to sit 500 people at once, then you can get cheaper real estate and put the extra money into a larger size and more seats instead. If your goal however is to serve only expensive dinners, then you can reduce the number of seats and put the extra money into fine-dining amenities. With this in mind, here are some numerical goals you can think about...

SPINS: This is probably what most people think about when they think about radio, especially now with the "counter" on Youtube that artists always fake. A "spin" is a single play on a single radio station (or in a club). The way to maximize spins is to minimize how difficult they are to get. So, you go for college stations or web stations, or for commercial radio, you go after unrated and small market regular rotation (especially in the overnights). For college radio campaigns, 10 to 100 spins a week is common, and for unrated/small commercial regular rotation, 50 to 500 spins a week is common.

PLAYLISTS: A playlist is a list of what a single station played in one week (sometimes, one month). Even a single spin of yours on a playlist still puts you on that playlist. So you want to go after college, web, and unrated/small market commercial stations (especially tests, spikes, mixshows and specialty), and go after a LOT of them (hundreds) at once, so you can get one or two spins on as many playlists as possible. When you print all these playlists out at the end of a campaign, it is really an impressive stack. It's common to get 50 to 200 playlists in a campaign. 

CHARTING: A "chart" is a weekly count of how many plays a certain GROUP of radio stations is playing you in a week; it's very similar to how many playlists you are on in a week. Radio charts, as of 2014, all are based on spins. So you simply want to maximize spins, generally by going after the smaller stations which report to the particular chart you want, and going after the easier overnight spins which count the same as the daytime spins.

LISTENS: Listens are what drive everything in the music business. A "listen" (also called "audience" or an "impression") is when one person hears a song one time. If you play your song to 5 people in your living room, you have 5 listens. If you play the same song to the same 5 people again, you now have 10 listens, although the number of listeners is still 5. Getting lots of listens is the toughest and most expensive part of radio, and the music business, because you have to maximize the number of stations, and the number of spins on these stations, and the number of listeners to each spin, simultaneously. College and web campaigns can't be used because the listenership is almost zero. Unrated/small market campaigns can commonly get 10,000 to 100,000 listens per week, for a total of 100,000 to 1,000,000 listens. Medium market station campaigns can commonly get 200,000 to 1,000,000 listens per week, for a total of 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 listens. And major market station campaigns can get 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 listens per week, and a total of 5,000,000 to 50,000,000 listens.

MARKET SIZES: Sometime an investor, sponsor, or parent wants you to be played in a large city (market) that he or she knows, and it does not really matter how many times (spins) it plays, or how many times it's heard (listens). In these cases you want to go for single spins ("tests", "spikes", "specialty", "mixshow") on the smallest stations in the biggest markets that you can get. Just being able to say "WXYZ" in BIG TOWN played you, even though it's the smallest station there, and even though it's just one spin overnight, is sometimes enough to make your next step happen.

REFERRALS: Getting a "referral" is when a station recommends that a store, newspaper, venue, or restaurant in their town for you, and tells you who at that store, newspaper, venue or restaurant you should talk to. Referrals are great because almost anyone at any station can give you one. College stations are probably the best because the kids there are unpaid but know a lot of the music scene in the their town; they can however be hard to reach. Commercial stations will always answer the phone, and sometimes even the secretary can give a recommendation. But whatever the station, when you call the person that the stations recommends, you can be sure that your call will get through much more often. And getting referrals is simple: Go after LOTS of stations.

 

 

 

FREE/PAID TICKETS: When a person goes to your gig, we say they got a "ticket", whether the tickets are paid or free. Maximizing tickets (meaning, the number of people who came to your gig just to see you) requires you to maximize listens and to concentrate them in particular cities. Have listens spread out around the world does you no good; all the listens need to be in a particular city so that the listeners in that city will all have heard your song enough times to want to see you live, and will all talk to each other (and to the venues there) about you, so it will appear that "everyone is talking about you" in that city. Thus, maximizing tickets in particular cities requires you to minimize the number of cites you try for.

FREE/PAID DOWNLOADS: Getting the most downloads, whether free or paid, is almost the same as getting ticket sales. The listeners need to have heard the song enough times (generally at least 10 times per person, which requires 100 plays per station), so that they and all their friends talk about it enough. Matter of fact, the cities with the most downloads will be the same ones with the most tickets (downloads will occur first). Generally for an unknown indie, it requires 10,000 listens to get one paid sale, whereas a major only requires 1,000. More known acts are somewhere in the middle.

RETAIL SALES: As of 2013, half of all sales are physical. Assuming your physical product is in physical stores (which requires a salesperson), the number of units sold will be directly proportional to the number of listens in that market. Generally for an unknown indie, it requires 10,000 listens to get one retail sale, whereas a major only requires 1,000. More known acts are somewhere in the middle.

  GIGS: A "gig" is when you are scheduled to perform at a place, free or paid, for a certain number of people. Maximizing the number of gigs is done by minimizing the size of the place, and minimizing the number of people who would see you there. The smallest would be apartment gigs, where you go from door to door and offer to perform for them in their place. In one day you can do 10 of these gigs, and you really don't need any radio to do them, although there really will not be any ticket sales. As you move up the ladder, you will reach a point where the places won't talk to you unless you have lots of listens in their market. At this point you are back to maximizing ticket sales. When you maximize your demand for tickets in a town, you will get booked easily at comparably-sized venues in that town when you call them on the phone.

LABEL/MANAGEMENT/DISTRO OFFERS: Since you can't really have multiple "deals", the goals with labels, management, or physical distribution people is to maximize the number of offers you get from them, of a certain size. Doing this varies widely based on the level of person/people you are trying to get offers from. Individuals, and small labels etc, are usually impressed fairly well with playlists, whereas medium labels will probably want Billboard charting.

CONSIGNMENTS: Getting your physical product into physical stores on a consignment basis actually just requires a salesperson to do it. Any listens, playlists, charting etc is a bonus; but really it's your salesperson visiting each store that does it.

 

Bryan Farrish Promotion is an independent promotion company handling radio airplay promotion, and venue booking promotion. He can be reached directly at: 310-998-8305 airplay@radio-media.com


RIP Shirley Temple Black
April 23, 1928 - February 10, 2014

She could sing, tap dance, play the role of a ringlet-haired moppet lifting the spirits of millions during the Depression. Shirley Temple also was a merchandising goldmine: dolls, clothes, dishes, cutout books ...appeared in her likeness.Then she chose to retire from the big screen at 22. She married twice and gave birth to three children before venturing onto the political stage, serving as US ambassador to both Ghana and Czechoslovakia, a US representative to the United Nations and chief of protocol in the administration of President Gerald Ford.  Shirley Temple Black died surrounded by family at her home in Woodside, Calif. She was 85.

RIP Paco de Lucía
Dec. 21, 1947 -  February 25,  2014

Paco (short for Francisco) Sanchez Gomez was best-known for flamenco.
Son of a Gypsy musician, he took his stage name in honor of his mother, Lucia Gomes. One of his recordings  "Friday Night in San Francisco," with fellow guitarists John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola in 1981, helped introduce him to  American audiences. Collaborations with Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and Chick Corea followed. Two-time Latin GRAMMY® winner Paco de Lucía was a renowned composer, producer. He was one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of our times.  Mr. de Lucía received some of Spain's most prestigious awards, including the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1992 and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2004. In a documentary, de Lucia once said: "With the guitar I've suffered a great deal, but when I've had a good time, the suffering seemed worthwhile." Listen to Entre dos Aguas


Oscar Is In Town
Five Favorite Categories from 24 at the 86th Academy Awards
ORIGINAL SONG

"Let It Go" from "Frozen," music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and
Robert Lopez (left) of Ave Q  won 2004 Tony Award for Best Score which has been produced in New York, Vegas, London, Stockholm and Helsinki and on tour!
His musical version of Finding Nemo, co-written with wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez, is currently playing in Walt Disneyworld. In 2007, he co-wrote songs for a musical episode of NBC's "Scrubs." He and his brother Billy Lopez have written music for Nick Jr's "The Wonder Pets!" and Disney's "Johnny and the Sprites." Yale graduate, 1997 (B.A. in English).
"The Moon Song" from "Her," music by Karen O; lyrics by Karen O and Spike Jonze
"Ordinary Love" from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; lyrics by Paul Hewson.

Indie rocker Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will perform "The Moon Song," which she wrote with director Spike Jonze for "Her." The love story is up for five Oscars, including best picture and original song.
 


  "Happy" from "Despicable Me 2," music and lyrics by Pharrell Williams A cheery gospel-funk number Williams said he modeled after Curtis Mayfield, "Happy" serves in the animated movie as a means of humanizing Gru, the grumpy villain voiced by Steve Carell. But it's also done brisk business as a stand-alone single, racking up more than 75 million streams on YouTube and an additional 45 million on Spotify. On Wednesday it sat atop the iTunes single chart and at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100.


ORIGINAL SCORE

"The Book Thief," John Williams
"Gravity," Stephen Price
"Her," William Butler and Owen Pallett
"Philomena," Alexandre Desplat
"Saving Mr. Banks," Thomas Newman


Steven Price composed the original score for one of 2013's most anticipated films, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
A recommendation from Abbey Road Studios brought him to the attention of Howard Shore, leading to Mr. Price's work with the Oscar-winning composer as music editor on Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
His subsequent movies as music editor included Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, for which he shared with his fellow music editors a Golden Reel Award nomination; and, in his first project with The World's End director Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, on which he also collaborated with the film's composer Nigel Godrich. Gravity's score prominence - and excellence - gives Price an Oscar in his first try.



PRODUCTION DESIGN

"American Hustle," production design: Judy Becker; set decoration: Heather Loeffler. "Gravity," production design: Andy Nicholson; set decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard. "The Great Gatsby," production design: Catherine Martin; set decoration: Beverley Dunn. "Her," production design: K.K. Barrett; set decoration: Gene Serdena. "12 Years a Slave," production design: Adam Stockhausen; set decoration: Alice Baker.


SOUND EDITING

"All Is Lost," Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
"Captain Phillips," Oliver Tarney
"Gravity," Glenn Freemantle
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," Brent Burge and Chris Ward
"Lone Survivor," Wylie Stateman


SOUND MIXING

"Captain Phillips," Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
"Gravity," Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
"Inside Llewyn Davis," Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
"Lone Survivor," Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

And the Oscar goes to....Good luck all!
For updates visit 86th Annual Academy Awards
Choose your favorite nominee here