Record labels can’t stop loving radio

If musicians and their record labels hate uncompensated airplay so much, you’d think they’d stop taking steps to get it. But it seems free exposure of music over the radio is still something to go for.

Madison Line Records recording artists Until June are coming out with their second Alt-Rock album, called “Young & Foolish.” As part of the campaign to sell the album, copies of one of the songs on the album, “What Went Wrong,” have already been shipped to radio stations.

Motown Records artist NE-YO has an album, R.E.D., that will be available in stores in mid-September, and is getting set to send its second single out to radio stations. Motown stated, “’Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself),’ launches globally today and officially impacts at Pop and Rhythm radio in the weeks ahead.”

The song is a follow-up to “Lazy Love,” which the label says “…heated up Urban radio.”

And here’s an interesting item. Destiny Media Technologies is getting set to hold a conference call to announce revenue results. What this company does is get pre-release music from labels to radio stations securely. The labels must really trust radio stations, because the DMT release says the music goes to radio “and other trusted recipients.”

DMT’s includes among its clients a quartet of companies radio professionals may have heard of before: Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony.

RBR-TVBR observation: Musicians and labels say they don’t want their music used on radio stations without a royalty payment, yet they are sending music to radio stations despite the absence of a royalties.

Are they sending them as dust catchers? Agents of clutter? What is the purpose of all this sending if not to get some free airplay?

At a time when 30-second spots are becoming the norm and the use of even shorter spots is increasing, getting a full three minutes of advertising/marketing time is one of the greatest bargains in all media. The labels should know better than to put their best marketing tool at risk in the pursuit of solutions to their self-inflicted internet-induced business model problems.