Looking at ears listening to music...

[hiddendriveways]

So yeah, this is a bit off topic, a mega-taboo over here in the TOMB, but whatever, I did my best to select the most appropriate forum.

I'm planning on putting out my first self released CD soon. I'm going to do a big radio mailing. I'm going to have the songs published on my BMI deal...

But here's the thing: say you do the things I listed above, and say, just maybe you end up charting somewhere on the CMJ top 200 or some chart of some sort.. how can you montior such things without having to pay some sort of CMJ fee? With all of the expenses I have to deal with, the last thing I can afford is something like that.

How does the independent musician get privy to such information?

I once had a friend who worked at a label and we used to read these "top secret" industry journals + reports that would show lists of musicians and how many records they had sold over the past few months and radio play reports and it was sort of facinating. I haven't seen any such reports since.

What can one do?

And why are these industry reports kept so private?

Thanks.

[jmoose]

The easy answer is that your manager should be able to help with stuff like that. You do have management or PR of some kind right? Usually you'll need them to help solicit and plug your material to the college stations.

[cgarges]

One thing you probably want to do is to put bar codes on your CD that are tracked by Sound Scan. This way, it's easier to actually track the number of commercial sales of your discs. That doesn't do much for tracking airplay, but it's something that labels (for instance) often look at when determining a value for your catalog.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[joelpatterson]

Ontop of the mailing to the radio stations, don't you need to follow up and badger people to play the songs? Like you would get in touch with the program director or a DJ who's got the leeway to play something he'd (she'd) like and beg them to give a listen to your work?

If you're all registered with BMI, theoretically their surveys will pick up any spins and you'll see that in your report... but I was always under the impression that with so many CDs flying into radio stations day in day out, you really need to spend the time and energy to promote your songs in a personal way to get any notice. Maybe I'm wrong.

[hiddendriveways]

Thanks for the words.

It makes sense to blanket all of the people I know for any leads or insight they may have about stations and djs around the country.

The sound scan thing might be interesting if I actually get the thing to any stores beyond cdbaby or the local NYC shops I put it on consignment in. But until then it's just a barcode amongst some artwork.





Any and all ideas are welcome.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Back in 1996, way before CDRs became ubiquitous, I was a DJ at my college's radio station. Even then, ten years ago, there was a daily (2 cubic feet) box of packages in the mail for the program director. This mail consisted mostly of CDs, with some press kits and whatnot thrown in. The radio station regulars would dig out one or two things every day that they had heard of and then throw the rest in a "freebies" bin. The few things that got noticed made it into the stacks and got some airplay. Any stickers that came in packages quickly went onto the walls.

I can't even imagine the amount of mail that radio stations receive nowadays, with so many people doing so much recording.

I guess it was as good a system as any given that there was so much stuff coming in all the time. I still don't understand how a band could ever float to the top of the pile without LOTS of touring, reviews in key mags/zines, luck, karma, etc. But that is another topic for another time. I guess the upshot is that you need a wise and well-connected person to manage your promotion.