Even in the UK many complain about the way playlists are constructed and how only the popular bands and songs appear on radio stations like Capital and Radio One. In reality, you hardly hear new bands from an unknown independent label featured on Capital Radio’s A list.
Here is my point; radio stations are not in the music business but in the advertising business. Chew this for a minute and then try to understand the impact on the music business. If this is so and it is so, the real reason why commercial radio stations play any music is because they are trying to reach a particular audience pre determined by the people paying for advertising slots. For example, if Kellogg’s wants to reach mothers in their 30’s, the music the radio station needs to play must reach that target group. Essentially, a lot of the programmers are so lazy and want to play safe that they simply play the most popular tracks.
You may ask what about stations like Radio One; after all they are government owned stations. In reality, Radio One has to compete with other commercial stations for listenership. If Capital is getting big numbers in audiences and Radio One is losing their followers, that would be bad news, hence like it or not; rightly or wrongly Radio One is becoming like Capital in playlist. Just comparing the A List of Radio One and Capital at the time of writing this article, you find a repeat of the same songs like Jessie J, Pixie Lott, David Guetta etc.
So can Independent artists get a chance on radio? Here are 3 things to do.
1. Build A Story. Many independents play the major label, big money game,by venturing in