Radio Promotion Guide
If you are an independent musician or and artist and want to make a name for yourself, find out ways to promote your music to masses through various channels. There are different ways to put yourself out there like playing gigs, posting your songs on Youtube or Soundcloud, sending demos to record labels and many more. But a lot of musicians overlook the importance of radio. Knowingly or unknowingly. When you are promoting your music, getting radio plays is one of the best ways to get heard. Now, the question arises here is how to get your music on the radio?
We can not deny the fact how corporate workers on their way to office tune in to music played on radio. In their spare time, while travelling metro or any public conveyance, people love to listen to music on the radio.
As an artist even though you probably won’t be able to make it on to the big national radio stations, there are still plenty of great indie radio stations who are in search of fresh talents and are willing to promote new artists and looking to find them a fanbase. All you need to make a request a song on the radio and prepare aptly to submit song to radio.
As a musician, new songs playing on the radio should not amaze you, but encourage you to create more. Original of your own. If you are promoting your newly made/produce music and want to get played on the radio, check out these tips to help you improve your chances of being heard on the radio.
Useful Tips on How to Promote Your Song on Radio
First and foremost,
1. Ensuring that your music is ready
If any radio is going to consider playing your music/song/music creation, make sure that it is ready. Get your music critiqued by a professional or a senior person and create a professional artist press kit. In case you send in a rough demo or something which doesn’t look fine, there’s a probability that radio station will not consider your song/music. So, getting your music ready is the first step on how to get your music on the radio.
2. Make sure to get expert’s advice
Reach out to other professional musicians and seek their feedback on your music/song creation. They will look at certain things like composition, arrangement, production value, mastering, mixing etc. Which are important for radio curators to ensure your music is ‘radio ready’ to go air and be heard.
3. Put together your EPK
Next step you need to put together is the EPK (electronic press kit). EPK informs the radio curator about history of you as music artist. The basics of an EPK is including your biography and discography (if applicable), relevant samples of your music along with the links to music that are online already. Once done, it should include a performance calendar and details of your recent gigs (preferably the recent shows you have gone live with), some high resolution photos and your cover art, links to the press coverage (if any), and lastly, your contact details. With the appropriate EPK (electronic press kit), it will be very easy for you to promote your music on a radio.
4. Research about Radio Stations
Promoting your music on the right platforms is vital if you want to build a fanbase. Getting played on a big radio station is always recommended and good for you as an artist. But, it is very difficult for you if you do not have a big fan following. Know the mistakes that musicians should avoid. It is recommended for a better start to do from small indie stations. The cherry on the cake will be finding a radio station, that specializes in your genre of music. Getting played on genre-specific radio stations will ensure that your music is heard by the right people. Invest some time doing research and put together a list of radio stations that you think are likely to play your kind of music.
5. Contact Radio Stations
When you are trying to contact stations, start by looking at their contact page on their website. It will be easy for you to work out and segregate the types of curators they are. Afterwards, you can check for them on social media and find a direct email of them. Some radio stations may have an email id for song submissions on radio stations too. In some cases, you may need to do a bit of digging as well to find the right person or email address to contact. Once you have the right email address, you need to write a snappy email with a few details about you and your music (new or existing). Attach your EPK (electronic press kit), and give a link to a private dropbox with your music on it.
Do not bother if you don’t hear anything from them even after a week. Radio curators get a lot of submissions on a daily basis, and it might take some time for them to get back to you.
It is ok to send them a casual follow up email with any further details, like upcoming gigs or music etc.
Lastly,
6. Mind the length of your music
Make sure your song is no longer than 3:40 minutes. If it is longer than the quoted duration, edit a shorter version and then use the original one as the second extended track. It might come in handy for future marketing assets as well.
There are many online radio stations playing music even ever before and getting your latest release. And getting their attention is not as hard as you think. With all the tips mentioned above, submit music to radio stations that suit your needs well and bang on with your music creation.
The Bottom Line
It is best to approach radio stations that are suitable for the stage of your career when trying to get your song on the radio. You can start with non-communications if you’re just getting started to get your songs on the radio.
The careers of some musicians are thriving even if they are never heard beyond college radio. You’ll start to see success on the radio if you build a realistic, easily managed campaign.
All you need is a good, memorable hook that will linger listeners. Be objective and compare your song with what you hear on the radio and get music on radio like a pro.
Getting a good song prepared and producing a radio-ready track comes with experience. Here’s what it takes to mastering the art on how to get your music on radio stations. Edit minor flaws; apply noise reduction to eliminate clicks, look at the hums and hisses, adjust stereo width, add ambience, equalize audio across tracks for an optimized frequency distribution, adjusting volume and dynamic range compression and reducing the song limit to the radio limit is what required to get your song/ music on radio.
So, is your song radio ready? Do a thorough check of the above mentioned pointers and follow the tricks to crack how to promote your music on the radio.
