During difficult times in the music industry, monetizing creative is a challenge and getting exposure for new releases is critical. But even while preparing to go to war with the radio industry, the labels still can’t stop from bragging about how well some of their acts are doing on [drum roll, please] radio.
The band is My Chemical Romance, which has a new album coming out on Warner Bros. Records’ Reprise label. The album is “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.” Like any good promoter, and especially a good promoter in this day and age of wildly disparate media, WBR has a lot of irons in the fire.
But the first iron they mention is the success a single from the album – “SING” – is having on Modern Rock radio stations.
Here’s what they said in a release:
“’SING,’ the new single from My Chemical Romance’s current album ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,’ has climbed to No. 1 on Mediabase’s Modern Rock radio chart this week.”
They note other interesting items, like the fact that the cast of Fox hit “Glee” is going to cover the song on the 2/16/11 episode of the program. The release notes the date of the iTunes release and directs those who are interested to an online video of the song.
But there it was, right at the top of the release — #1 on Modern Rock radio.
RBR-TVBR observation: The GAO was unable to put a specific marketing and promotion value on radio airplay, but we sure did notice a strong correlation between the two when looking at GAO’s report last fall.
The radio and recording industries have long had a mutually-beneficial relationship. Both are both facing challenges and should be working together in partnership to overcome them.
Fighting for a royalty that would benefit only the labels and a handful of the top-grossing performers, another fact brought to light by the GAO, is not a long term solution for the recording industry, and continuing this battle helps nobody.