REPLICATING RADIO IN THE NEW ERA...

Let’s assume for a moment that I know what I’m doing. I can write stuff—I have written stuff. I have other musicians who want to play with me. There are venues (a few, anyway) that want me to play there—presumably, they think I’ll bring in customers. I can put on a show of at least 2 hours tailored for just about any kind of audience. And I’ve sold out five pressings of my CD. (Yes, all the pressings were small, but it’s the principle of the thing.)

Sounds like we’re ready to Take It To The Next Level, doesn’t it? So what IS the next level, and how do we get there?

Back in the days of the Dodson Drifters, 30 years ago, we would be cutting a new record and takin g it around personally to the DJs at radio stations. If they thought it was good, they’d play it, and promote it—and we’d get people at gigs, and they’d be buying the record. We’d also at this point have a booking agent arranging the gigs (actually, with the Dodson Drifters, it was the booking agent who contacted us, not vice versa).

The second part of that strategy may still work, but the first part?. There are very few radio stations these days with DJs; most stations these days do not control their own playlists, and nothing new or independent gets played. On the other hand, people don’t seem to listen to the radio like they did 30 years ago (boring may have something to do with it). These days, it’s the Internet that’s ubiquitous. The Internet does have the advantage of not being controlled by anybody. It has the disadvantage of not having any filters. Nobody’s performing the function of those old radio station DJs, identifying and promoting talent.

Or is there? Those who get their music off the Internet are not searching blindly; there is at least the beginnings of a filtration system. Some of the players are big, like Rhapsody and iTunes, and some are small, like those little podcasters that seem to be cropping up in all sorts of places. It is those folks, big and small, I should treat like the old radio station DJs, making sure they know who I am, and making sure they get copies of everything I professionally produce.

There are a lot more of them, and the little guys and gals especially “cover” much smaller markets—but on the other hand, it’s cheaper to reach them. Back in the ‘70s, getting records in the hands of DJs meant a couple of us going on the road for a couple of months, staying in cheap motels and personally delivering 45s to the DJs. (We would often get interviewed, too—a big plus. Wonder if one could start that trend again?) These days, “Alice” the ‘puter can do it from the inexpensive comfort of my home; all I have to do is set up the mailing list—a clone of the “joelist,” really.

The process is a lot like the old radio distribution, too, in that it’s all promotion, not sales. The Dodson Drifters never made a dime off radio; the records we gave away to radio stations were just CODB—Cost Of Doing Business. Where we made money, as a performing band, was getting gigs. Promorion, I think, is the highest and best use of the Internet, too, in its present anarchic state. Perhaps the best one can shoot for is being able to direct listeners to points-of-sale like CDBaby where they can buy a CD—but the money is still going to be in the gigs, just as it was 30 years ago.

And just like 30 years ago, I’ll want a professional product to send the podcast folks. That’ll be the New Album (still planned for just before Christmas). In the meantime, what I can do is identify and contact the podcasters, find out how best to get material to them, and give them the last (“Santa’s Fallen”) album as a “here’s what it sounds like” tool. Sound like a good work program?

UPCOMING: Garibaldi Days starts today. The Friday Night Group plays tonight, the “Garibaldi’s Got Talent!” Show is tomorrow, and so is the band concert in the park. A week from Saturday is the Garibaldi Museum show, and then we’ve got to send the Dylan-wannabe recording to England, with its entry fee in British pounds. SOSA concert in Central Point is 22 August. Wonder if I’ll have any more job interviews?

Joe