That depends on the artist. There are some radio stations who have a playlist rotation of only a couple of hours; if you add in ad spots, chit chat and the like this doesn't leave much time for the music.

In th early days of radio a large percentage of artists had their music played on the air, since most artists had more than one song on the radio playlist at the same time fans were sure to hear something from that artist rather frequently. New artists could even drop by drop off and promote their new song. This was also a time when the FCC held a tight reign on radio stations and big conglomerates did not own nearly all the stations. Today the FCC has little control over radio stations and a few large conglomerates own nearly all the radio stations. These company heads conduct so called studies that tell them what kind of music people want to hear on the radio; as a result there are only a few musical styles that even appear on the air. Enter the major label record companies - which are few - who dictate what songs should be played on the air, sometimes in return for favours.

In the end only a small percentage of artists today ever see their music played on commercial radio stations. This is one reason radio stations began popping up all over the internet giving many small label, independent, and new artists an opportunity to have their music heard by potential fans.

If you are a big name artist under a big major label then you get more than your share of radio airplay - otherwise foreget it!

Learn more about this author, Sherrill Fulghum.
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