College Radio Airplay Tips

Subscriber David Anderson just made me aware of a great discussion thread at Ask.Metafilter.com. A number of program directors and show hosts offered their best tips on getting college radio spins for an independent artist. As you'd expect, a common theme was this:

"I worked at a college radio station as a program manager. The amount of material the station got each week was staggering. I'd say up to 90% of the CDs we received never made it on air."

But it's not all doom and gloom. Here are my favorite radio airplay tip highlights:

• "These days, most DJs can be contacted by e-mail. I've occasionally received e-mails from bands offering their music. I always listen to stuff that people send directly to me, and I've definitely ended up playing some of it."
  
  
• "Simply calling up and asking DJs to play the CD will work pretty good, if you can put in the hours necessary to call lots of stations."
  
  
• "A station member sorts the stuff into genres, and it's put into a new music section. DJs look through the new music selection and play whatever strikes them as cool." (Lesson: Make sure your style of music is crystal clear to whomever opens your package.)
  
  
• "Putting a big sticker on the front cover that says "SOUNDS LIKE:" helps. Compare yourself to heavily played college radio music."
  
  
• "List the tracks you think are the best and describe them in basic terms (poppy folk, folky slowcore, whatever)."
  
  
• "Don't use the words 'lush' or 'soundscape' anywhere on your promo material."
  
  
• "[Point out] your best track. No music director has the time to skip through six tracks -- they're probably doing it between classes, or while they're eating lunch."

Good stuff. Read the entire discussion at
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/41432

-Bob

P.S. For more indie radio airplay tips, check out the Fundamentals of DIY Radio Promotion.