So You Want To Get On Radio?

Working at The Urban Zone I have had the opportunity to network with a lot of LOCAL artist - some good, some bad. I've put together different avenues for them to showcase their music, including talent shows, artist showcases, free style battles and a host of other things. Of course working on the projects with PARTY 93.3 only got me a host of unwanted cd's that people felt I could give to the radio jock who would then listen to it and then play it on air. THAT'S NOT HOW THE GAME WORKS!

The things that I've NOTICED that work aren't steps many people take. Again, these are just things that I've noticed personally that seem to work, it's not always 100%.

Get the local DJ's to play your music. I would suggest starting at the high school and college parties. If they like your music and request it in the club, it helps with creating a local buzz. Don't even try to waste your time with these wack DJ Organizations, they are charging you an arm & a leg for stuff you can pay someone within your crew to do or you do yourself. Just go to the club, network with the DJ and BAM! If you get a nice amount of DJs spinning your music then I'd suggest going to one of those organizations. I don't believe in charging $250 per track to even LISTEN but hey, I guess DJ's gotta eat too. If you have some already playing your track and then you go to a group of DJs, you'll have more leverage.

Before even going to radio - ask yourself, is your NAME even big enough to be on radio. When I say big, I mean around your home town to where people will be checking for you. Do you have a following? I'd suggest getting out there and networking with other local artist who may have a name but not a deal (next blog will be on that). You know, those artists you grew up on that only your city could relate to? Yea, reach out to them and do stuff with them - get involved in opening up for their shows or just being around them. This is actually great for your Press Kit also.

Doing research on the radio station - do they even play local artist music and when are they playing it. Giving your cd to the morning show would be the most dumbest thing to do in the world, everyone knows that the morning shows cater to talking with listeners and such; not much music is played in the morning. The midday show MAY do it in a MIX - like a lunch time mix and again MAYBE! The evening show may do it after 6pm - this show again is catered to listeners whom call in. The night time show - BINGO! This is where you'd get your play - actually, over night is the best place for local artists to get spins - DO YOUR HOMEWORK THOUGH!!

The research you are doing should also include knowing who the go to person is - please believe me when I say that the radio jock is NOT the go to person. Unless said Jock happens to be the Music Director or Assistant Program Director - THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR DECIDES WHO GETS PLAY!!

Some times radio stations will have steps on how to present music to them. Of course your music must be copy written, otherwise just follow the other procedures that may be listed. It is sometimes possible to set up a meeting with the Program Director. This would entail you calling ahead and setting one up. If you should so happen to be lucky to get a meeting be sure to have CLEAN music with you, along with some sort of Press Kit. PLEASE do not go into the meeting trying to sell yourself with the number of MySpace "hits" you receive. Although it may seem like a HUGE accomplishment to have 500 people hit your page daily, that does not say anything about those people liking your music. So many people are buying software that sends messages to people on MySpace and it's only natural people click on your page to see who the heck you are - getting a hit from them trying to figure out who you are and actually liking your music is TWO different things!

Again, when checking the station out, see if your music even fits with the station. Just because they are a hip hop station and you feel your music is hip hop - your sound may be one that is better on the Pop sounding station. Example - Kanye West is Top 40 & Hip Hop Station related music, find out which one is best for your sound. Expand your mind and step outside of the box. Be sure to check for stations within your STATE and not just your CITY!

I'm sure I am leaving things out but I guess this is a start. I don't know about the other States but Texas REALLY has it easy when it comes to finding EVERYTHING out that you need to know about music. It's on the net & I would say where but then I'd be giving away a secret I'm not ready to part with. KEYWORD: Research and if you're too lazy and don't know how to do such - get someone on your team that does and pay them *ahem* :)

Here's another good read on the subject

SouthBySouthwest - Sonic Bids - Dubbs Lane

Mad love to @Calinative aka Liz for reminding me about South by Southwest. I have never personally been but my sister, who works for Sony, goes just about every year because o some Artist she has performing or something. I always recommend Artist to go, even if it's just to network and not perform, a lot of people register too late to perform. Your luck has possibly changed this year however, I am submitting this info within enough time before the deadline.

"SXSW Music is four hyperactive days of making connections for musicians, recording companies and every other business touching on music, from concert bookers to copyright lawyers, publishers to Web geeks." New York Times, 3/19/07

Apply to Showcase Your Band at the 2009 SXSW Music Festival.

The deadlines (October 24, 2008 for international artists, November 7, 2008 for artists in the USA) and fee ($25 for early submissions, $35 for applications submitted after September 26, 2008) are the same.

I see that they have sync'd up with www.sonicbids.com, which is a site I had planned on blogging about already.

Since I' started this blog, I get a SHIT load of emails from Artist who want me to Manage them, Market them or something else. I also get a bunch of people who want me to review their music - I actually had intentions on doing such last week but due to freakin Hurricane Ike I was set back a tad bit. *side note* after 12 days of being away from my crib, I finally have lights and I'm home! =)

Over the time of being away, I received an email from a rep for Dubbs Lane; this was THE BEST artist email I have EVER received! Mad respect to the people behind him - and thanks for hipping me to a new site, lol.

The email contained an EPK for Dubbs Lane:


His bio was RIGHT there for him and I had options to review his music and check out pics - the best online EPK ever in life. Not to mention the option to SAVE his EPK and this is alllll thanks to Sonic Bids!

What Is Sonicbids?

Sonicbids is a Web site that helps bands get gigs, and promoters book the right bands. Our community includes over 150,000 bands, singers, songwriters, and performers of all kinds, and 14,000-plus music buyers of all kinds, including promoters, licensors, festival programmers, and much more. Bands come here for gigs; promoters come here for bands. We have lots of both.

I highly suggest everyone to join this site & check it out. Step ya game up and email your press kits out the RIGHT way. Obtaining email addresses for the right people to send such press kits too is NOT hard. Due to that being one of the ways I make money, I can not tell such ways to find said emails, LOL. I do Marketing and sometimes I am requested to send stuff off to certain people. But TRUST me, its EASY!

I had plans to cover someone already as my first review but I would like to show my appreciation of his professionalism, so I'm going to showcase him =)



The Laurel, Maryland, Hip-Hop Artist is actually rather good (for the record, I have NO problem with telling someone their music sucks, lol). He's good on a level that he may actually get slept on though because he doesn't stand out. After listening to "I Dig" and jamming to it real hard, I found myself hitting next quite often; his other tracks were album tracks. That is until I got to "I'm Rockin" - that shit goes hard! I'm not sure what the single is that he is pushing but I personally think this should be IT!

I wish him much success and add my 2 cents of working on more singles; hate to say it but music is so watered down right now and you have to find that one song that you may not want to do but also has you true to your style. He seems to have the right people behind him aka people who know what they are doing, so I bid he will be okay! =)

Let me Showcase You

I have a background of putting on some of the hottest showcases in Houston via my place of business; yes I am the brain child of every showcase that went down even the one's with PARTY 93.3.

I want to do the same here - showcase talented musicians. Granted this is not a Magazine (I was an editor for one before) but blog reviews are something is substance when it comes to your Press Kit. What's a press kit you ask? Tsk - yeah, you need me, lol. With my immaculate writing skills (don't sleep, I get paid to write bio's & such, lol) I will do a weekly write up on an amazing artist who is talented. Taking such write up, printing it out and finding a suitable place within your press kit is something Labels look for; amazing write ups on your music. Excuse me for being in the stone age & believing grass roots Managing is what it takes to get a talented Artist signed with an astounding record deal.

Send me your music - CathrynMarie@Gmail.com

ps - GOOD and NEGATIVE write ups are something of relevance. It shows you're not human and there are people who didn't get you when you first started out.