IDM Mailing Archive

Jasonosaj said: :When I was doing my radio show I tried a million times to get on the :promo lists of some of these companies and was told 'we dont provide :promotional material to radio, even non-commercial radio'...As if they :made the stuff of life at their company. As a result of those policies I :was unable to provide a lot of new music to listeners who aould have been :reached and promted to buy the stuff retail...etc etc... When you're pressing 100-2000 copies of something for a specialist audience (i.e. mostly DJs, who primarily buy things word of mouth anyway) promoing to radio stations is pointless. It adds a whole new layer of f*cking with shipping, keeping track of requests, and the leeches who just grab every promo that comes into the station and immediately sell it to the record shop around the corner. WEA can handle this, Sakho can't. (just to pick a couple of companies out of the air) I'm not trying to diss college DJs here (I have quite a few friends who spin radio shows), but you asked... on now: Dean & DeLuca _Chapter One_ track a2 [funky as _hell_] - d.w. m5 m5 m5 m5...

quoted 3 lines When you're pressing 100-2000 copies of something for a specialist

> When you're pressing 100-2000 copies of something for a specialist > audience (i.e. mostly DJs, who primarily buy things word of mouth > anyway)

I get what you're saying... But noncommercial 'alternative' (not 'grunge', but non-mainstream) radio programming is also a specialist audience that needs attention. I dont want to turn this music into top 40, but I do want to see it validated as a 'real' form of music. I WOULD buy things word of mouth, but by the time the word from whatever mouth trickles down this way the fraggin disc has been sold out for months! So I'm either out of luck, or I'm going to find a way around it, which means that bootlegs are fair game, and that I will ask for promos, or whatever. It isnt like I am a drooling groupie. I dont beg, but I do pursue every possible avenue to get the music I prefer to play on the air. I'm just waiting for the day when writable CDs and CD writers are cheaper. Anyway... Jasonosaj

Dans la Matrice, Dave Walker a dit:

quoted 6 lines Jasonosaj said:

> > Jasonosaj said: > > :When I was doing my radio show I tried a million times to get on the > :promo lists of some of these companies and was told 'we dont provide > :promotional material to radio, even non-commercial radio'...As if they

quoted 3 lines When you're pressing 100-2000 copies of something for a specialist

> When you're pressing 100-2000 copies of something for a specialist > audience (i.e. mostly DJs, who primarily buy things word of mouth > anyway) promoing to radio stations is pointless. It adds a whole

This is just not true. The road to recognition is something that resemble something like this: If it CDs, with the current pricing, it doesn't really make sense to press less than 1000. Out of this, you can send several promos (a hundred) without any problem. If it was for the money, you'd be talking 20000 copies at least, so sending out 150$ of CDs is not an issue here. Now where to send them? First, to local radio stations. I play usually 2 local artist each show, and i suspect that most radio djs would do the same if they would get more local products. After you have sent the 4 or 5 CDs to local radio shows that play techno (idm), then send the same quantity to local press (media that will cover your style of music of course). If you do get interviewed, bring 2 copies to draw on air. People really like that, and it looks very professional. Collect the paper coverage and do a press kit. Include name of radio shows and comments you got. Now, send cds and press kit to radio stations you know have techno shows, or send directly to the dj. If you get email/phone/mail requests, do reply and if you have promo copies left, send them. These people were motivated enough to contact you, so invest wisely and send a copy. You can think otherwise, but that is how i see it. When i started my radio show years ago, i would spend 5000$ a year on records and cds. I didn't know a lot of people and faced the PR bullshit from mid sized record labels. Now i play what i get. People dont reply or things like that, well it's just too bad for them. And if you are an artist and dont do the PR yourself, you are the one who end up unapreciated, so check that your label really follow up with medias. At the very least, a record label could have a compilation with all their artists sent from time to time (when they have enough new artists/albums/whatever). Ciao, -- Francois Dion (IdMEDIA) [> Email: francois@hyperreal.com <] ' [> C.P. 278, St-Lambert, QC, Canada, J4P 2N8 <] [> Raving Up North Ezine: run-request@hyperreal.com, subject: help <]