[OutVoice] RadioAirplay?

[Bill Realman Stella]

sounds like a waste of money.

having looked at their site now, LOOKS like a waste of money. Do people
really buy music because it got played next to Jay Z?
And it's really weird that one radioairplay page lists a banner-full of
"Partners" but the partners aren't linked from there. People have gotten
their money's worth sometimes from some of those partners (CDBaby,
sonicbids, CMJ), but each of those have become less relevant over time,
best as I can tell.

The problem, as I see it, with the "radio" experience on the web is that
the "radio" listening audience is so fragmented - I mean, we're talking
thousands and thousands of online "stations", and tens of thousands more
self-directed "stations" on places like Pandora - that paying someone for
airplays sounds like a rip on the face of it.

Jango is a site I had registered with years ago, but it just wasn't as good
as other options. I forget what its specific failings, in my mind, were --
except a vague sense that it was primarily going after audiences that went
for lowest-common-denominator pop music and its hundreds of wannabe
imitators. (which looks like radioairplay's modus operandi) On the other
hand, I'm so sick of services like Jango and Pandora that want you to
listen to more of what you already like, which is the death rattle of
intelligent listening. IOW, my tastes may not reflect the majority. (See my
PS.)

The way to get "airplay" is to get your music where the musicians are. I've
gotten more than my fill of music from a variety of genres by listening to
what specific musicians and bands post at specific sites. I can't make
heads or tails of myspace anymore (myspace 2?), and Facebook offloads music
into separate apps which sucks - a nice place to visit for tour dates and
blogs but not for listening (unless you want your browser to freeze (yes,
my online mode is browser, not phone or device, based).) I don't troll
Spotify, or Pandora or Grooveshark or,  or (etc etc). (Might as well
mention that I haven't given up on Reverbnation or Last.fm yet.) My
recommendation is it's best to go direct and create your artist's page at
Soundcloud.com, and/or at Bandcamp.com, (I recommend both, because they
have different features), and drive your audiences to those pages. *(I
checked, and there's no zecca.bandcamp.com <http://zecca.bandcamp.com>, so
that's waiting there for you to claim.)*

The place I'm finding more legal music than ever before, I'm surprised to
find, is YouTube, where a search of a band name will not only bring up the
expected few music videos but songs usually posted by fans with low or no
video content but a still-picture - which is fine! Just load up a list with
music by the same artist and get a broad lesson in their musical history -
no need to watch the videos! I'd really love it if every Out artist who
ever was would pack their audition-grade mp3s (128kb) into one-picture
videos and post them to YouTube.

Finally, some of the above-mentioned self-directed stations are a cut above
the rest. I know of a small number of sorta-friends whose stations are
truly a little better than vanity sites; they aren't generating income (or,
if any, not much) to get them above the stations being their dedicated
hobby, but if you can find stations like them they're worth getting on for
exposure to their dedicated 100,000th of an audience. In the gay radio
world, the one really very good show (not a "radio station", but a show)
that may not have been mentioned on this list before is an on-demand
program called Homoground; they're up over 100 shows, plus a series of
"mixtapes" on the side. Homoground.com .

Well. All that isn't exactly (just) an answer to your question (TMI?), but
I sit here listening day after day to good musicians acting out of
scarcity, and the richness of possibilities to be pursued just floors me.
Please Don't waste time on what looked liked like the future *-a decade
ago-* like radioairplay.com. (If I could figure out how to "monetize"
putting music onto sites including bandcamp, soundcloud, youtube and
reverbnation for deserving musicians, I could finally have a good job.)

Bill Stella

An intentionally somewhat-manic PS: Yesterday I listened to The Lonely
Wild, a band I know little about except that they have a live performance
album on bandcamp with a unique cover of "Personal Jesus" with a solo break
lifted from Pink Floyd's "Money" that concludes by trading bars between the
two songs, then I'm going thru a Top 20 Best Albums of 2013 list produced
by AllScandinavian, with (expectedly) Sigur Ros and, unexpectedly, a modern
Swing Dance band called Them Bird Things, and 3 other fine bands I've not
heard of before, which I found after gorging myself on some 2008 EuroDisco
from Lesbian duo Fagget Fairys (that's how they spell it) and a
maybe-psuedo-gay duo The Wong Boys. Today I've listened to Dudley Saunders,
Chris Gates & Gatesville (a country rock dude who used to be in the punk
band the Big Boys), continued on the AllScandinavian.com Best of 2013 list,
where I indulged in Black Lizard, a "neo-psychedelic" rock band, and right
now I'm gorging on a Loud Rock / punkish band from Denmark called
Honningbarna - singing mostly in Danish, so I can't understand much of it
(The album starts with the instantly classic "1.... 2... 3..... ... FIGHT!"
), but it's got great rock hooks and superb pressurized energy.
THE POINT: I'd love to hear all that together on a station like Pandora and
have it run semi-automatically, and pull in interesting similar music
(*similar*, not audibly the same) - or hear any of a near-infinite number
of different musical combinations! - but there isn't an available parameter
on an online music site that would permit it. So getting
The real sad truth that I wish more people would demand change in: Not
enough audience interest to demand truly far-ranging radio - Where is
everyone who complained about limited playlists in the 70s, 80s and 90s,
and/or why did you all decide that all you really wanted was to hear the
sub-sub-sub-genre(s) you like most and have no interest in ever challenging
yourself with sounds you're unfamilar with again?
The entire "internet radio" concept seems moribund to me, except as what I
can tweak it to be. It's not a place to pay to be spun on. Better to find
places to get your audience to find more music, product and experiences by
you.



On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 2:14 PM, Zecca <zeccaesq at verizon.net> wrote:

>  Anybody have any feedback on radio airplay.com? I went for the "100 free
> airplays" introductory deal, but is it worth paying for after that? Isn't
> it just a repeat of MP3.com where you're only played on "Stations" that
> members set up (for their personal friends!).  But then there's a notice
> that I'm now on Jango, whatever THAT is. Sounds like a waste of money...
> Opinions?
>
> Peace and Love,
>   Zecca
>
> --

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