At the end of the month – 8/30/11 to be precise – California Alternative act Red Hot Chili Peppers will release their latest collection of songs called “I’m With You.” Radio is already helping the band enjoy a successful release, helping it by elevating a single off the album, “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie,” to #1 on the Radio Alternative charts.
Warner Brothers Records notes that this is the 12th time that radio has assisted the success of this band in the form of helping it achieve a #1 hit single.
In fact, WBR is so proud of this fact that it puts the radio remark right in the headline of its latest press release. We quote, “Red Hot Chili Peppers Score 12th No. 1 Single on Alternative Radio Chart With ‘The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie’.”
The band will soon be kicking off a series of concerts both in the US and abroad to support the release of the album. We suspect radio airplay may help them sell a few tickets and merchandise items at these events in advance of the album’s release.
RBR-TVBR observation: As the recording companies slowly bring their business model in line with new digital realities, they seem to be doing a better job of working toward profitability. Maybe when that happens they will cease their blind groping for a cash source – any cash source – and in particular, remember just how valuable free radio exposure is in terms of building their own business.
It is instructive that a veteran and well-known band such as RHCP kicks of its press release noting another radio success – this band likely has enough followers that simply letting word get out any old way would be enough to inspire loyal fans to seek out its new release.
The fact that RHCP is still hungry for radio exposure underscores its value in general. And for a band that is relatively unknown, radio exposure is critical – how will a gold-record-sized crowd find an unknown act among the thousands competing for notice on the internet if it doesn’t get its name and music out in front of the public?
That’s what radio does for musicians and labels – and we hope that the labels soon end their attack on the one industry in the world that should forever be its BFFL.
