How to Get the Most Out of Your Radio Airplay?
You released a new song, ran a promotion campaign and radio stations received your new song. What now?
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| Are you getting the most out of your radio airplay? |
Is your music playing on the radio?
1) Track Your Airplays
That's easy to know : a website such as WARM (World Airplay Radio Monitor) conducts real-time radio-tracking to report on what stations your song is being played.
From boutique stations in Japan and college radios in Canada to national radios in 131 countries, you’ll always know when and where your music is being played. Even on specialist and genre-specific radio stations. They claim to track 28024 stations as I'm writing this post!
I personally love their service and I highly recommend them. Their website is user friendly, and their service is super affordable and efficient.
In addition to knowing how many times you're being played on the radio and where they're located, you'll be able to discover your fan base demographics, which is very useful when it comes to your next campaign strategies and future tours optimization for example.
Plus, you'll be able to accelerate your royalty collections, show evidence if needed, to royalties organizations or any other purpose.
Here's the link to register with WARM.
You might be as surprised as me how many radio stations are spinning your new song! We found out that my band was played on hundreds of them all around the world! (thanks to a great PR i must say! ☺)
2) Share the News on All Your Socials
It will give credibility to your band and excitement for your fans: they witness your success, one radio at a time.
It's also a good way to give more exposure to the stations that play your song. It's a win-win, especially for local / indie/web radios: they promote you, you promote them, etc.
3) Send a Personal Note to the Radio Stations and Hosts
It's always nice to personally say thanks and tell them you'll keep them posted on your future releases. Developing a relationship with music programmers, station managers or radio hosts may be time consuming (especially if you're played on a lot of stations), but can lead you to amazing opportunities later. It will strengthen your image as an artist, as well.
4) Collect Money!
If you haven't registered on Soundexchange, do it, it's never too late. It will allow you to collect the royalties for all your radio airplay. A lot of musicians think that ASCAP (USA) takes care of it, but they don't (at least not until you're the #1 artist in your country... they don't care about indie artists revenues...).
I noticed that Sirius XM airplays pays very well, in addition to all the online stations!
5) Make a List of the Radios That Played Your Song
That's my BONUS TIP! Thanks to WARM, you'll be able to establish a list of the stations that play your music. Now it's time to update your biography and include them. I also created a visual with all the radio stations' logos, and I share each update version of it on social media (+ tag the radio stations).
Use this valuable list as a base to build on. For each release, you'll gain more and more credibility, so more fans, more press, and more radio airplay. It's a spiral.
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| What will you do to get the most out of your radio airplay? |
Reach out to the stations that previously played your music. They are more likely to accept the pitch on your new music/single. Maybe add a little personal note as well to establish a connection with them.
And of course, follow all the previous steps again. Every release, if done well and with patience, will bring you airplay from new radio stations to add to your list.
