The Continued Importance of Radio Play: It’s Not What You Think
Pre-internet days, getting major radio play was a big deal—it was the only way to reach a large audience all at once, save for getting a spot at one of the big music festivals. Obviously, getting a video on MTV or VH1 also meant global reach—a viable excuse for spending ridiculous amounts of money on headline directors, special FX, and whatever else might elevate those five minutes on a godlike pedestal. As a musician and from major label perspectives, you were a success if you landed a Top 10 hit.
For music snobs, however, getting instant replay on the radio was reason enough to abandon a previously unknown band/musician (or at least unknown to the masses) as you retorted, “Sellout!” because they suddenly weren’t considered “independent music.” Getting play on the college station or NPR was still cool and respectable and all of us music snobs still fished for new tunes at live shows/concerts/house parties, mixtapes, and digging around on forums like Discogs once our internet connections were morsels faster than dial-up.
So what happened when everything went digital and online?
Our listening habits went digital and online. Why listen to the radio in your car when there’s SiriusXM or your iPod or a mix CD of tracks you lifted illegally from file-sharing services like Napster? (Not encouraging illegal downloads here. Pay for your music.) If you’re hip, you know about We Are Hunted, Hype Machine, and music blogs in general—you don’t need the radio. College stations like Radio1190 started streaming online, podcasts were invented, Pitchfork launched, and YouTube allowed for an influx of DIY music videos. In short, the internet facilitated discovery of spectacular unknown music and made more accessible the coolness factor associated with one’s music taste.
Fast forward to early 2011 when Arcade Fire took Album of the Year at the Grammys with the distinction of not being signed to a major label. Surprising? No. It was only a matter of time. That so many people in the industry and general population were blindsided was surprising. Where on earth had THEY been and what were they listening to?
Point: Radio play remains important—if only to understand the overlap of popularity between the internet and whatever Clear Channel is slinging. Does that change the opinion of a band receiving “airplay” on both mediums? Maybe. Maybe not. For music snobs, however, it might prove enlightening about their status as music snobs. Oh, no. Heaven forbid you might enjoy some of the same tunes that the lowly general public likes.
Elizabeth Gilbert on happiness and intimacy as related to Schopenhauer’s porcupine analogy.
The porcupine dilemma is as innate to human experience as breathing is to “living.” The act of allowing people in, allowing someone else to see what’s happening within the closed rooms of one’s heart is sometimes almost terrifyingly impossible and for some of us, it remains one of the heaviest learning experiences of our lives (I am one of these people.) We don’t want to allow our own personal dramas—no matter how big or small—to bleed onto other people because we’re “supposed” to be un-needing picture of self-sufficiency and independence.
Well, big surprise…sometimes we all need a little extra body heat to get through the darkness of our night.
Journalists the world over are struggling to cope with a social and mobile tsunami of ‘user generated content’, to use an increasingly inadequate phrase. Twitter and YouTube will overwhelm news organisations who can’t master their potential.
A common mistake for those seeking to cope with this profound disruption is to confuse technology with innovation. Algorithms, apps and search tools help make data useful but they can’t replace the value judgements at the core of journalism.
Genuine innovation requires a fundamental shift in how journalists think about their role in a changed world. To begin with, they need to get used to being ‘curators’; sorting news from the noise on the social web using smart new tools and good old fashioned reporting skills.
Source: soupsoup
Beautifully shot video of iconic blogger - Scott Schumann, aka, The Satorialist.
A beautiful example of why social media is what it is and at its very best. At the very foundation, it connects people. As Mr. Schumann says, it’s the moment and every moment that he shares with his world is, in turn, shared with the rest of us. You have a blogger whose story is being shared in a Youtube clip, which is now being shared via Tumblr.
Source: benjaminandhisblog
