by Griz

Created on: May 09, 2008

Is radio giving artists the exposure they need?

The answer depends on who you are. If you are a music industry fat cat executive, the answer, without a doubt is yes. If you are an artist who is struggling to make a career in music, then the answer is not only no, but hell no.

What the listening public does not know, and many artists discover the hard way, is that radio today is nothing more than another marketing tool for big business. There's no such thing as an independent radio station any more. They are all targeted to a specific market and their playlists are carefully devised based on demographic information to attract listeners from that market. The point of radio is to advertise. It advertises products and services, but, in a way that would shock most listeners, it also advertises the music business.

There are many different formats for radio stations. All talk, classic rock, easy listening. Each of these is calculated to draw their target demographic and feed them advertising. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the top 40 stations. These are targeted at the demographic which has the greatest amount of disposable income: teenyboppers spending mom and dad's money. This is the golden goose for the music business and the eggs it lays are worth about $40 billion per year.

When a record company signs an act, they take very few chances. If they decide the promote that act, they will shepherd the recordings through the process using a producer with a good track record in top 40 music. When the recording is done, the record companies turn radio to market their product. This is done through barely legal middlemen called "Indies."

Indies make exclusive agreements with radio stations to provide content. The record companies pay the indies for every spin of their song they manage to get on the radio. It's a new version of the old pay to play scam, and it works like a charm. The record companies spend millions with the indies getting their hit singles injected into the ears of their target demographic every ten minutes. Of course, it's worth every penny as the brainwashed teens spend someone else's money on CD's, iTunes, ringtones, concert tickets, clothing lines, Burger King tie ins. A cut of each one of those things goes in the music businesses pocket. A small pittance goes to the artist.

As to the question of whether radio play benefits the artist: without a doubt. Any exposure is good exposure. However, to be that lucky artist that gets radio play means that you are one of the few that the record companies have chosen to promote. Even though you're getting a raw deal and receiving pennies for every dollar your work generates for the fat cats, if you make it big that pittance can be a lot of money. You're happy because you don't know any better.

If you one of the million other musicians out there trying to make a living, radio does nothing for you. The prospect of getting airplay is as remote as a beer in the Sahara.

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