GENERAL ARTICLES ABOUT RADIO

[Pamela]

How radio "paid spins" helped rev up singer's comeback

By Jeanne Anne Naujeck
The Tennessean

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Reba McEntire's song "Somebody" hit No. 1 last summer, it was hailed as a comeback for a country legend who had dominated the charts in the 1990s but hadn't reached No. 1 in seven years.

The payoff for a No. 1 song can be big. It drives record sales for the performer and labels. And other parties have a stake, too, such as songwriters and publishers who make royalties each time a song is played on the radio.

But McEntire's success after years away from the music business ignited a furor on Nashville's Music Row because her record label bought radio time to play the song. That's because the key to hooking customers and selling large volumes of music is radio play. And lots of it.

The spotlight on radio play already has prompted some music labels, radio stations, chartmakers and artists to change their methods, pulling back on the use of independent promoters and altering how No. 1 hits are calculated. Looming in the background are New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has rooted out fraud on Wall Street and in the insurance industry and is looking into the music business, and the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken a harder line on certain types of programming and disclosure rules.


Sudden success

"Room to Breathe," the first studio album in years for McEntire, who had turned to acting and stars in her own TV sitcom ("Reba," 9 p.m. Fridays on The WB/KTWB), had a soft opening in 2003 for a major music star. The first single released topped out at No. 14 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart.

Then the second single, "Somebody," came out. It spent 30 weeks climbing the chart, then suddenly vaulted from No. 3 to No. 1 in early August.

At the time, the Billboard charts were determined by the number of times a song is played on U.S. radio stations in a given week. When an Aug. 7 Billboard article noted that "Somebody" had just gained 1,150 spins, an unusually large jump, Music Row noticed.

Speculation flew that McEntire's label, MCA Records, got to No. 1 through "paid spins" — buying advertising time on radio and then playing a song during it — to raise the total number of spins a song gets on radio. It's perfectly legal as long as the sponsorship is disclosed.  
 
Scott Borchetta, head of promotions for MCA owner Universal Music Group, acknowledges that the label bought some spins but said it was just one element of a plan to accrue a large number of spins during crucial "push weeks" — such as the one that moved the song from No. 3 to No. 1.

"When promotion is brought up, people think there's some kind of black art to it," he said. "It's hard work."

The No. 1 success of "Somebody" jump-started sales of her album "Room to Breathe." The album, which sold 280,000 copies its first two months out, has since sold about 587,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"It certainly had a positive effect ... on her whole profile," Borchetta said. "There was a concern that Reba wasn't as focused on music since she moved to L.A. Now she's announced a 40-date tour for this year. The whole momentum of 'Somebody' going to No. 1 is snowballing."

Memories of payola

The flap over paid spins — and Borchetta is hardly alone in using them — comes at a time of renewed focus on the music industry. Spitzer's investigation of promotional practices has revived memories of the payola scandals of the 1950s, when radio DJs and stations were bribed to put certain songs on the air.
After the Spitzer investigation was announced, Infinity Broadcasting and Entercom said their stations would no longer use independent promoters. Infinity fired a program director in Rochester, N.Y., after it found he kept gift certificates from an independent promoter instead of using them for station giveaways.

The FCC also is interested in what's being played on the radio, specifically how difficult it is for a large variety of acts to be heard on the public airwaves. The federal agency also is charged with enforcing the laws on payola, a federal crime.

Record labels and radio stations say direct bribes aren't the issue as much as consolidation in the radio and the music business that has squeezed both the airtime allotted to play music and the money that can be devoted to developing new acts.

Labels in Nashville spend between $250,000 and $1 million to introduce a new act with a single, video and album release. Pop and rock labels spend even more — two to three times as much, by some estimates.

Nancy Tunick, managing partner of Nashville-based Grass Roots Promotion, compares promotion tactics to a poker ante that ends up costing every label more.

"It's bad for the business," she said. "They spend so much money on promotion that when they're finished they generally have to sell platinum (1 million albums) to recoup. It's a poor business plan for a label, and they recognize that."

SEATTLE TIMES

[Pamela]

Broadcast radio fights to hold onto a shrinking market  Wednesday, January 26, 2005
 
WHAT WERE THEY thinking ? Do they really live in a world where the nuts hunt the squirrels? These are among the questions being asked about the National Association of Broadcasters' $28-million propaganda campaign to discourage consumer interest in satellite radio, iPods and Internet radio. It's the NAB's admission that new media are stealing away an audience once exclusive to terrestrial radio. Now they see the need to go on offense.

The NAB is the lobby arm of the major radio chains responsible for turning the screws on radio listeners by successfully working Congress on radio and TV deregulation. The campaign's funded by major radio chains, including Clear Channel, Infinity and Radio One, whose stations dominate radio ownership in Cleveland. Their anti-anti crusade will target radio stations, consumer magazines and the Internet.

The first group of commercials feature Alicia Keys, Ludacris and Nelly, among others, all using the tag line “Radio, you hear it here first” — a veiled slogan claiming that terrestrial radio is still the top choice for breaking new music.

Is this the same Alicia Keys who's the cover girl on the February issue of Lucky magazine, in which Alicia's supposed love for terrestrial radio was nowhere to be found? In a “how I'm wired” feature, Keys praised XM Satellite radio and Apple's iTunes. “I have an XM Satellite Radio in my car. I love the variety of music, from jazz to hip-hop — even ‘The Smurfs',” she told the magazine. Alicia also had approving comments about another radio rival. “I'm addicted to iTunes,” she said. “I buy one song and then another, and the next thing I know; I've spent a couple of hundred dollars.” She added that she carries her music on an ultra-light Apple Powerbook G4, and even gave positive props to her Blackberry and cell phone. Terrestrial radio must've slipped her mind.

Once again the NAB's pedantry rears its pompous head. “I've never heard of Lucky magazine, so I can't comment on the interview,” Dennis Wharton, the NAB's VP of Communications told Radio Business Report . “What I can say with certainty is that Alicia Keys and all of the artists in our campaign are crediting local radio with playing the central role in launching their careers.” Though few would deny Alicia's talents, Clive Davis, the CEO of J Records, Keys' label, had to spend major pay-for-play dollars through independent promoters to guarantee her a spot on radio playlists.

How about Ludacris — another artist featured on the pro-radio campaign? He wasn't showing his adoration for terrestrial radio when he appeared live on the XM “performance stage” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Then there's Nelly, who hosted the world premiere of his two new albums last September on Sirius Satellite Radio and guest DJ'ed on two of Sirius' music channels. “Satellite radio is an important outlet for artists, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to play my music personally for fans,” reads a quote from Nelly in a recent Sirius press release. “I hope they enjoy it.” And did I hear Ashanti premiering her new album on XM?

Since iPods, satellite and Internet radio reached critical mass numbers, the reaction by radio execs is that of headless chickens. Since headless chickens can't think, plan or strategize, radio bought into the NAB's $28-million folly, which forgot to check the artists chosen to see if they had satellite radio ties.

The NAB's lame propaganda crusade did not go unnoticed by the Wall Street Journal , which editorialized, “This week, a new advertising campaign with the tagline “Radio — you hear it here first” shows just how scared the terrestrial-radio owners really are.” Frightened people often do irrational things

XM's not getting mad — just even — with its new pro-satellite campaign using most of the artists from the NAB's pro-radio campaign. Slogan: “Not Only Do You Hear It Here First, It's Commercial Free.”

Radio could have taken that $28 million and reinvested it into their properties. They could've replaced hyper-tight playlists dictated from a corporate office with music appealing to their market of license. They could have eliminated bionic voice tracking by hiring real local personalities and a support staff that's passionate about music and programming. And how about running fewer commercials? “It's not the high cost of talent that's ruining the game,” the colorful baseball owner Bill Veeck once said. “It's the high cost of mediocrity.”

The radio mega-chains learned the hard way that they lacked the capability to manage something as complex and unique as running hundreds to thousands of radio stations simultaneously. Unlike radio, Apple, XM, Sirius and Internet radio know that the individual is the true source of excitement. They are the ones who evangelize brands and become loyal and passionate. Trying to manipulate the masses doesn't work in a splintered society, but speaking to the needs of the individual, or groups of individuals who you may be able to align in the future, is very effective.

Soon, only repo men and payola investigators will be interested in terrestrial radio.

CLEVELAND FREE TIMES

[Pamela]

Listening to Online Internet Radio Grew 40% in 2004
 
From Corey Deitz,
Dateline: 12/15/04

A new study by Borrel Associates has identified the rapid growth of internet radio.

In 2004 internet radio has grown 40% to 20 million regular listeners, 50% of whom tried the service for the first time in 2004.

Some of the newcomers appear to have migrated over from traditional radio, which has seen diminishing listener numbers.

The largest losses have been in the 18- to 34 year old age group - the same demographic that comprises the bulk of new internet radio listeners.

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