Songs: Why Being #1 Means Little Today
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It's time to take a serious look at how the world of music ranks the music in our world.
I rarely go a day without seeing some reference by an artist speaking about a song of theirs that's ranked #1, somewhere. The artist's boast is clear: "(song title) is ranked high on (choose site name)." I follow this discovery with a thought of "Does it matter anymore?"
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"An artist's objective is to get airplay; in our on-demand world, whether that be to one person or a radio station matters less today than at anytime in the history of music distribution."
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To be clear, having the backing of multiple distribution sites does make impact; it gives the band members a feeling of accomplishment (feeds ego). But, beyond that, there's little improvement in sales - unless you're an already established act, and those are becoming fewer with each passing year.
An artist's objective is to get airplay; in our on-demand world, whether that be to one person or a radio station matters less today than at anytime in the history of music distribution. (Take a moment to define "radio station." It's not broadcast I'm speaking of here, because the chance an indie artist will make it into rotation on one of those is near zero. Yet, trying to reach a number of online radio stations, simultaneously, is problematic.)
It's for the above reason that I suggest a layering of song distribution, where no single song is ever withdrawn from being given a shot at reaching an audience. When airplay on one station or social media source begins to wain, that same song will be new on another. Unless the music IS DATED by lyrics, in our new media world, a song will always be "new" to a group of people who haven't been exposed to it before.
Example: There are 128 Pop songs listed at
RRadio Music. They have been requested 625 times by online radio stations for addition to playlists. Another 88 stations have aired the "
Intro to Indie Artists - Pop" program. Now twist this just a bit: There are thousands of radio stations online that have still not been exposed to any of these songs; therefore, each song is still new to each of the stations not yet reached.
As an artist, why would you want to pull any of your songs out of rotation, or stop trying to get airplay on the remaining online stations?
According to one source that tracks broadcast radio formats, there are approximately 1100 stations in the U.S. that play this style of music. Online there are thousands.
It's a new world of music distribution. As an artist, giving up the opportunity to get any of your songs aired on either an internet radio station or in social media seems to me to be a waste of creative output.
A song can live on forever online. Music is always going to be "new" to some audience.
For the record: Here are the 5 top requested Pop songs at RRadioMusic.com. All are available, for free airplay, to internet radio stations and for sale to consumers. Each artist is looking only for the exposure that airplay brings.
"I've found quite a few bands through RRadio Music..." - Howard Byrne, PopStew
Today's indie introduction is to...
Give Fugot's "Woulda Coulda Shoulda" a listen.
Add it to your playlist, free!.
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