In the early and mid-90s, I did quite a bit of promotion work with local musicians. At that time, I was helping musicians who primarily played in coffeehouses get their first CDs played on college/public/community radio stations. We thought that with all the radio DJs out there in that market, we might find some who might be willing to listen to and take a chance on giving some unknown but talented person some airplay.

The scene has changed a lot since then. You now have the explosion of the Internet and streaming MP3 sites in which anyone can upload their music and be heard anywhere at any moment. Yet, some independent artists still do pursue radio airplay as part of their career strategy. In fact, I get unsolicited inquiries fairly often to this day. I thought I would take a look back and share some details on how some artists had some success...a few a bit beyond their expectations.

Most of the artists I assisted were folk/acoustic musicians. The first thing we did was try to identify stations that would be willing to hear them. Through the help of a folk dj e-mail list which posted digests of radio show playlists, we had an idea of what was being played and who was playing it. We then contacted the show hosts or music directors first by e-mail, providing a musical description of the artist and the CD (without flowery hyperbole about how fabulous the CD is), and asking if there would be interest in airplay. If they responded positively, we sent a CD and short bio. We did not just blindly send out CDs to an address just because it was on a list of folk radio stations. We wanted to be sure that money and time (both ours and the DJs) was being spent wisely by going to the people and places that would give the best possibilities for airplay.

After a few weeks, we would check posted airplay lists or send follow up e-mails to see if the CD was being played. On the average, about half of the stations we would send a CD to would report airplay. We had some heartening success stories. Some local artists were getting international interest as well as national airplay. A couple even got reviews in folk magazines such as Sing Out! or Dirty Linen. One musician's CD ended up on a radio station's top 40 year end "best of" list. I also offered additional help to a regional artist who already had a respectable following in her marketing efforts. Eventually we lost count of all the stations that played her CD and she ended up being signed to a folk label.

Lessons here: 1) Do your homework first--it's worth it. (Unfortunately, people who still send me unsolicited and inappropriate material haven't learned this one. ) 2) Never say never...unless you at least try, you just never know who might hear you, and where.