Rihanna - Red Carpet

Superstars Are Very Shiny

I wish I were good at talking about the gorgeous clothing and the tallest shoes and the fabulous, extravagant excess that make up so much of the Grammy Awards. You’re probably better off going  to a fashion website for that. But I must say, I sat backstage Sunday night and saw almost every artist who was about to perform walking up and down the halls and greeting each other. The list is endless – but I’m sure you know because you watched the awards. Nicole Kidman (you just can’t imagine how truly elegant and beautiful she is), Will Smith, who gave me a courteous little bow, with his son Jaden Smith who was wearing the biggest platform sneakers I’ve ever seen (I don’t know how he walked in those), Hayley of Paramore who was right in front of me in the security line, Cee Lo without his big costume looks like a normal guy in a t-shirt, the debonaire John Legend with a stunning woman who must have been six feet tall before the six inch heels, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin striding down the hall like the royalty they are, and I can’t even begin to describe the effect of seeing Nicki Minaj’s hair. I had a prime spot for viewing the stars, but not the show. I actually didn’t get to see the show until much later that night. I’ll have to write a whole other article on the performances – I think it was the best Grammy Awards in recent years.

The Work Begins

But there’s a lot of work behind all that glamor and that’s why I was there as Rihanna’s voice teacher, along with the many many other professionals who made the magic happen backstage. When I arrived at 3:30 Rihanna swooped by, stooped to give me a quick kiss, and ran off to the Red Carpet wearing that amazing wedding cake of a see-through dress. What a way to start my workday! When she came back after the show’s opening number, she went into her dressing room to get ready for her first performance of the night. She is the only artist who sang twice. Her dressing room was packed with people; three people were sewing her into her huge billowing tulle dress and one was getting her shoes ready. All this while I warmed up her voice. There’s no room for a keyboard so we did it a cappella, which is no problem for her since she has such a good ear. It’s no secret how sick she had been for the last week. She had to cancel a benefit performance a few days earlier due to laryngitis and bronchitis but she has the best Ear Nose and Throat Doctor on the planet, Dr. Shawn Nasseri, and she sounds great.

And Then The Show

Once she was in the dress, the hair and makeup people had to do their magic but the dress was so big she couldn’t sit down, and people, she is TALL. So she knelt down for about fifteen minutes while everyone finished their work. When the knock on the door came to tell her it was time, she sailed out to the stage with her assistants and bodyguards and sang the hell out of her duet with Eminem. You may have noticed that in the middle of her song she pulled her ear piece out; that’s because it completely stopped working. But she is a trooper and finished (and sounded amazing) without being able to hear herself. Then back to the dressing room for another costume/makeup change and her final hot performance with Drake. When she came back to the dressing room, the crew pack everything up and they all headed to the airport  for a redeye flight to London where she performed at the British music awards show (and won again!). You have to be an athlete to be a superstar, and she is. I was exhausted. So much for my glamorous life. I went home and collapsed in front of the television to watch the show I had just worked on.

As the frontperson of your band you are in unique position. You are the person who the audience connects with first. Through you they come to understand the material and meet the other musicians. The persona of the singer often defines the character of the whole band. This is especially true if you are also one of the songwriters.

Besides being able to play your instrument (your voice), you have to be able to move well, use your face and body to express your feelings and communicate with the band and with the audience. None of the other band members are required to be the conduit to the audience in quite the same way. The skills of a frontperson are very specific. In order to perform comfortably, consider taking dance or movement classes, improvisation classes, performance workshops and acting classes – anything that will help you connect your thought and feelings to your body and your actions.

Sing It Like You Mean It

I often see good singers giving dull performances. They sing with their eyes closed, or stand stock still. Or even worse, they run around the stage without any real purpose, just keeping busy. One of the things that makes a great performance is the connection the singer feels to the material, usually to the story they are telling. If there is no urgency in the telling, if the singer is on automatic pilot just rehashing something they no longer feel, then there is no energy in the performance.

These are some of the questions you must ask yourself: What does the lyric mean to me? Why do I care? What do I want the audience to walk away feeling as a result of my performance? It is not enough that the audience thinks you are a good singer. Singing is only a means to an end – the end you want to accomplish is affecting your audience, making them understand you, convincing them of what is important to you. That is what makes your performance compelling. As an audience member I’m bored when a singer is showing off how pretty their voice is, or how good they look, or how cool they are. It doesn’t affect my life. What they have to say should matter to me. I want to be moved.

Even if you feel the power of the story you might not be communicating it. You might be inhibited. Growing up we have been socialized. We learned not to be rude, not to interrupt, not to be too loud or take too much attention. But onstage those rules are not useful. I’m not saying you should be rude, but you should be more responsive to your impulses and not stop yourself from reacting to the things you feel. Maybe you wouldn’t shake your whole body and throw yourself around in a conversation with someone when you disagree, but onstage that might be just the thing to do to when you feel adamant. In our daily lives we are careful about going from an impulse to an action because we have to live in society with others. But onstage those rules aren’t appropriate. You can and must respond to your impulses. This doesn’t mean that you have to act in dramatic ways although that certainly works. You can choose to be gentle or quiet; you don’t have to dance or shout. You do have to care and it has to show.

Practice Spontaneity

It’s tough to practice being more impulsive, more spontaneous. There aren’t many opportunities. Here is an exercise. Go to the art supply store and buy a fairly large pad of drawing paper. Also buy some colors that you love. They can be any medium – pastels, paints, magic markers, watercolors, crayons – it doesn’t matter as long as you love the colors. Set aside 20-30 minutes and do five fast paintings; they should be abstract, not ‘of’ something. No literal pictures. Just a splash of color here and a wiggle of color there. There is no right or wrong here. You are just trying to act impulsively. Lay the colors out in front of you and look at them. Pick one that looks good to you and paint with it. Then pick another. Don’t work at the paintings. They should be quick. When you are done with one painting start another one. Then after you’ve done five, look back over them and you might see that one grows from another. In one you worked in one set of colors and then when you started the next you wanted to work in new colors. Or you hated one when you finished it so you started in an entirely different direction on the next one. Maybe one had a squiggle in it and you didn’t want to do a squiggle in the next. Or you found a combination of colors you liked and wanted to use them again. Even the paintings you dislike had a purpose – they led you to the next ones.

This exercise is useful on a number of levels: it allows you to accept even the impulses that you had that you didn’t like because they are part of a process; it allows you to see that you have a process; it starts you toward responding to what you like and don’t like, to what you feel without worrying about what you should or shouldn’t do. It is a small start on practicing spontaneity.

Then the next time you are rehearsing with your band, tell them that you are going to practice your performance as well as the music. Try things. Start with moving your hands, or using your neck. Don’t face straight forward the whole time. Play with the mic stand. Try being flirtatious, aggressive, silly, or coy. Try anything. It doesn’t matter if the things you try work or not – they are just steps toward the things that will work. This ends up being a lot of fun once you get over being embarrassed. The next time you see a band you love, watch what the lead singer does and try to imagine yourself trying it. Or imagine what it was like in the rehearsal room when that singer tried it for the first time. Be brave; it’s worth it. You are on the path to charisma.

As the frontperson of your band, you are the one the audience comes to know first. Through you they become familiar with the material and the other band members. You set the tone. Are you deep and gentle like Sarah McLaughlin, introspective and intense like Thom Yorke of Radiohead, or aggressive and dangerous like Pink?

Where do you fit in? Or rather, what makes you stand out? How do you become intriguing enough to be considered a star? How do you create a concept around which to shape your songs and your band? Let’s take a look at a few people who have accomplished this feat and see how they did it.

Mythic Artists

The most mythic artists, like Lady Gaga, have such a strong persona that you could actually sum them up pretty easily. Gaga is provocative and outspoken, infusing her electronic dance music with glam. She pushes against the values of society in many ways: with her sexuality, her dark lyrical perspective, her outrageous clothing and her mash-up of musical styles. She rebels against any kind of limitation. When you think of Lady Gaga, a very clear and strong image comes into your head. She has created a myth and it shows in every element of her work – from music to clothing, from lyrical content to video content.

Gwen Stefani is also a rebel but in a different way. She is street smart and uses humor to defy the restrictions set by society. She is definitely not “Just A Girl”. She is glamorous even while wearing track pants. Although the lyrics might be intimate, there’s an aggressiveness in the music that keeps her from getting too close or being too sweet. She’s tough and vulnerable at the same time and plays these contradictions off in her clothing, gestures and movements.

Even artists who aren’t as radical as these two have honed their message down to its essence. Sheryl Crow was once described as the ‘thinking man’s party girl’. She’s tough and she’s smart with a vulnerable side you only rarely get to see. She’s a cynic and nothing is going to get past her. You would probably never hear her sing a lyric that is as confessional and intimate as a Colbie Caillat lyric nor will she use that kind of sweet vocal sound. Even though Sheryl Crow is certainly capable of singing with a beautiful tone, she chooses a more conversational, undersung style, whether consciously or unconsciously. This is because it mirrors her personality and her view of life, which is not sweet, not pretty. Her guitar sounds, her clothing, her attitude, all reflect the same concept.

No matter who you respect as an artist, whether they are flamboyant like Adam Lambert or completely unglamorous like Dave Matthews, you can still see who they are and what they represent in the way they bring life to the songs, the musical style, the stage show, the photos, the press and all the other elements.

Your Own Myth

Where do you begin to find your image, your onstage persona? Start with yourself, your history and your real personality. You can’t pretend to be an angry young man or a sexy babe if it isn’t what you really feel – you won’t do a very good job of it. Who are you really? It’s hard for us to know who we are and how we appear to others. Here is an assignment to help you get started: ask five of your friends to write down a list of your three strongest personality attributes. They don’t have to be nice things because if you are a troublemaker, for instance like Pink is, that might play very well on stage. And they shouldn’t be characteristics like ‘nice’, ‘smart’, ‘talented’ or ‘creative’. Those things won’t set you apart from anyone else. We are looking for the things that make the people who know you recognize you. Maybe you are a caretaker type of person or maybe you have a lot of energy. Maybe you are a geek or a loner. If someone says you are sexy, ask them to be more specific. Are you sexy in a ‘girl–(or boy)–next–door sort of way? Wholesome, brazen? Sensuous? Are you funny? Is it dry humor? Bawdy humor, adolescent humor? Try to get your friends to be specific. When they are done you will have fifteen words or phrases that are descriptions of your personality as others see you. Some of them may overlap. If you are very funny, probably everyone will include it. But the point is to see yourself from the outside. When you start to have an idea of what image you present to the world, you can begin shaping that image.

From The Inside Out

Image is not something you apply from the outside. Sure some producer can tell you to wear certain clothes and act a certain way and sing his songs and then he will make you a star. But it rarely happens that way (with a few exceptions) and it isn’t very satisfying. You aren’t you. You are pretending to be what he has created. You feel like a fraud. Even the boy groups that have been created by a producer have later gone on to take a strong stand on what they really want and who they really are. Image comes from the real you. It comes from the inside out. Look inside yourself for your opinions and feelings and then write about them in your songs. When you sing them the force of your convictions gives you great energy and stage presence. This is the start of charisma.

If your material is socially conscious, then your band shouldn’t be dressed like they’re going to Mardi Gras. If you’re writing romantic songs about the joys and sorrows of love, then your band will probably not be covered in pierces and tattoos. If you are singing blues songs, chances are you won’t have a cellist. If you’re a garage band then you probably won’t want to look like you stepped out of business meeting. Of course there are exceptions to all of these and the exceptions are sometimes the most interesting. Contradictions can be fun. But it’s still a choice based on what you want your audience to perceive.

When you go to a concert of a person you admire, you come away feeling that you’ve gotten to know that person. How did that happen? What did they do to express who they are? Were they shy? Talkative? Angry? Arrogant? Bubbly? Silly? Serious? What about you? Who will you be? When your audience walks away from your concert, who will they have seen? Remember, this is a longtime process. You will always be creating yourself. As your beliefs and attitudes become clearer to you, your concept will evolve. And as you take a stand on those beliefs you will develop the confidence and clarity of purpose that leads to charisma.

Read part 2 – Charisma, The Sequel

by Severin Browne

I am addicted to songwriting. It started when I was very young and has stayed with me my whole like. I know there are many out there with this same affliction that might benefit from having the friendly and supportive songwriting community that I’ve found.  I want to tell you a little bit about the SummerSongs family and about SummerSongs West – the California camp, specifically.  If you’re inspired by any of this, maybe you’ll join us at our next camp.

SummerSongs was begun in 1999 in Upstate New York, the brainchild of Penny Nichols, a respected vocal coach and singer.  Penny wanted to create an annual summer camp where songwriters could be nurtured and supported while they made their way along their creative journey. I traveled to New York in August, 2000, for the second SummerSongs to find out how Penny could, as she said in the SummerSongs Mission Statement, “encourage, support and promote the creation of songs, the work of songwriters, and to facilitate the inclusion of original songs in the life of communities.”  What I found impressed me, and I surprised myself by realizing that I never wanted to go another year without SummerSongs!

After a couple years SummerSongs expanded to include a winter song camp fittingly called WinterSongs.  The next stage of growth led to West Coast versions of the camps called SummerSongs West and WinterSongs West.  I was in Heaven knowing that I would have such a great resource right here in California.

I’ve tried to understand what it was about SummerSongs that made it so magical for me. I’ve written songs and attended functions for songwriters since the early seventies when I was a staff songwriter and artist for Motown Records. Being from a music industry center like Los Angeles, I’ve been to many songwriter groups and industry seminars that don’t even begin to capture the warmth and support that I felt at SummerSongs. They can’t touch this!  And the reason became clear: they are about business and SummerSongs is about community and personal growth.  I don’t mean to say that SummerSongs ignores the music business, but rather that the priority is to help the writer dig deep into his or her songwriting craft. And when you add in the community, it’s just magic!

Rich P. says:

“I think of SummerSongs as an oasis nourishing weary travelers in these stressful and emotionally parched times.  In this haven we become more and more ourselves, letting down defenses and replacing them with an emotional honesty that lets love in and out without self-consciousness. The more we reveal our individual selves the more we discover how much we share in common, accepting each other as beautiful human beings, empowered to explore our musical inspirations no matter what direction.”

I was inspired to write this by the June 2007 gathering of SummerSongs West, which for me was about as much fun as is humanly possible. Here’s a little about the teachers and their classes, and some quotes from a few SSW ‘07 campers.

Steve Gillette is a long time singer-songwriter credited with writing one of the classic folk songs of all time: Darcy Farrow. He is also the teacher of one of the most popular songwriting classes at the legendary Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas.  His songs have been recorded by superstars Garth Brooks, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, and many others. Steve’s main class at SSW ‘07 was “Songwriting”, but he also taught a class on “Performance” and gave one-on-one time to students who signed up.

Penny Nichols recorded her first album for Buddha Records in 1967, “Penny’s Arcade”, which sold 50,000 copies. She worked as a singer for many years, recording and/or touring with many world-class artists. She received a Platinum Record for her work on Jimmy Buffett’s “Son of a Son of a Sailor”, and appeared in the movie “FM” as a member of the Coral Reefers. She also received a Grammy nomination for her work on Arlo Guthrie’s “The Power of Love” album.  Besides being the leader and founder of SummerSongs, Penny also taught a Singing class, a Harmony Singing class with Dale La Duke, and a Vocal Recording Technique class with Vince Chafin.  She also gave one-on-one tutoring to students who signed up.

Rebecca T. Says:

“On a personal level, Summersongs is a fountain of inspiration and creative power for me. Every camp leaves me fired up and ready to do the work related to songwriting and performing. For me it is essential! I didn’t know what I was missing, but now that I do, I will never miss it again!”

Joyce Woodson is a Southern California girl who sings songs about the West and has three tastefully produced CDs to her credit. Her songs are about cowboys and wide open spaces, and her guitar playing and overall performance abilities are excellent. She taught classes at SSW ‘07 on Stretching Your Writing, Organizing Your Creative Time and Performance with Steve Gillette.  She also gave one-on-one time to many students.

Crow Johnson is also a singer-songwriter as well as a writing teacher from Arkansas, and has been touring and teaching for over 40 years!  Her class at SSW was called “Getting to the Songs that Only You can Write”, and her philosophical yet down-home way of teaching was a big hit with many students.  Crow also did many one-on-ones with the students who signed up.

D’vora G. says:

“Workshops are for all levels and include all aspects of the creative process: How to start a song, how to finish a song, how to write a funny song, as well as singing, performing, recording, guitar techniques and more! You can either focus on one particular skill, or move around to glean something from several.”

Florence Riggs is a vocal teacher with 40 years experience in the Los Angeles area music business. Her list of clients is very impressive and far too long to include here. She led a class that she calls “Creative Soundings” as well as private voice training on a one-on-one basis.

Bill Gessner is truly one of the hidden gems of SummerSongs. Besides being on the Board of Directors of SummerSongs, he writes very funny songs!  Bill led a class called “Writing Funny Songs” and tutored many students one-on-one.

Janice S. says:

“I took a workshop on “Writing Funny Songs” with Bill Gessner that was not only a lot of laughs, but very informative, enlightening and encouraging. We did a writing exercise based on a sign that Bill saw at camp that read, “What should you do if you meet a black bear?”  We got some great laughs out of it and one person ended up writing a great ‘Bear Song’.”

Dale La Duke is a singer-songwriter-piano teacher who led the “Harmony Singing” class with Penny. He also taught piano to students who signed up.

Pat Milliken was a virtuoso guitarist from the Santa Barbara area, where he performed and taught regularly.  Besides one-on-one tutoring, he taught a class in DADGAD.  I’m very sad to say that Pat passed on this last year.  Many SummerSongs students came and sang at his memorial, many with wonderful stories of this local legend.

Nicola G. says:

“Summersongs is an experience of comradery in action.  In a world where music sometimes seems so competitive and angst-riddled, we leave that behind and wash all the tangles out of our minds and feel the love.  It ain’t just a fairytale, its real! And it’s called SummerSongs.”

Vince Chafin is also a Santa Barbara area singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He brought his Pro Tools Recording studio to camp and recorded demos for everyone who signed up.  He also taught a class on Vocal Recording Technique with Penny.

Severin Browne.  As a staff-songwriter and recording artist at Motown in the 70’s, a continual music student in the 80’s, and a recording artist again in the 90’s, I’ve learned a lot about music and the business that I share with my students. I taught three different classes at SSW ’07: Song Starting – where each day we discussed a new way to begin a new song; Song Finishing – where students could get ideas on how to complete songs they had already begun; and Beginning Guitar – where students could get help with their playing. I also gave students one-on-one tutoring.

Jerome Y, said:

“One of the songs I performed was called “Closer”, and it was about getting closer to nature.  Being an inexperienced performer, I learned in the performance class and elsewhere that the key to eliminating nervous mistakes and improving spontaneity on stage is practice.  So practice I did, taking my guitar to a secluded spot on the other side of the dining hall.  The afternoon before I performed the song, I sat there with the wind blowing off the lake and my untucked shirt tails flapping behind me like wings.  I finished running through the song and turned around to see a young fawn (that still had its spots) about six feet away from me and trying to get “closer”.  Its mother was about 15 feet away up an embankment.  With no voice, the doe’s only way to communicate was body language.  She was using that to its fullest to try to get the fawn to come to her, but the fawn waited and watched me until he satisfied his curiosity, then turned and joined his mother.  What a thrill to get closer to the wonder of nature!  Perhaps the fawn was trying to get closer to the wonder of music.”

Why SummerSongs West?

The teachers at the camp are not elite and unapproachable like they are at many music business camps. They are all seasoned veterans of the business, but they are also caring people who like to see each student get the best training and make the most progress. Two of the SummerSongs guidelines that all the teachers follow are 1) “Do not offer critiques unless requested” and 2) “Make all comments and criticisms positive and constructive.”  This alone makes SummerSongs a much more performer-friendly camp than any other that I’ve heard about, especially for those of us who do not like to have our songs torn apart without some guidance on how to make them whole again.

Rebecca T. says:

“My experience with Summersongs has been positive and transformative from the start. Of all the workshops and conventions I have gone to related to music over the years, Summersongs stands out in many ways. The community of support, the “we’re all in this together” philosophy, the ban on criticism unless solicited, and the safety and respect that this generates is unique to Summersongs in my experience. I have been to other camps, and “Songwriter” events, where the teachers and “industry pros” are the elite, and do not mix with the students. This is not the case at Summersongs. Penny picks for her staff people who are lifelong learners, and there are no special nametags or attitudes.”

Susan M. says:

“I look forward to camp every time it comes around and it has created lasting friendships and relationships and support for me as an artist in the community at large.  I feel very loved and cared for and nurtured and equipped to come back to my own world and continue my journey as a singer/songwriter in life.”

my songwriting stratosphere. These creative avenues sometimes seem elusive or blocked when dealing with the every day weight of the world. SummerSongs always breaks down the writers block and helps me to relocate my own individual creative process.”

Janice S. says:

“With the support of the teachers and the others at camp who share my passion for writing songs, I have come to recognize a deep bond of kinship and community that is beyond words.  No matter what level you are at with songwriting, beginner or professional, at camp the playing field is leveled and everyone becomes a willing participant in their own personal journey to risk, to learn, to trust, to share. Having attended five camps now, with one positive experience building on the next, I feel I have grown not only as a songwriter but as a person too.”

The two California camps in 2011 will be WinterSongs West, January 28 to 31, and SummerSongs West, June 10 to 16.  There is room for you to join us if you like the idea of singing and laughing and growing as an artist. So visit the website at www.summersongs.com and enroll today.  I hope to meet you there!

By Bryan Farrish

www.radio-media.com

One of the new tricks to confuse artists is “digital distribution” or “digital servicing”. This is a service where the following is supposed to happen: You pay a small fee to have your audio sent to radio stations, then the person at the station listens to your track, plays it, and the service then tells you who played it. Problem is, it’s very misleading.

First of all, you have to understand the difference between “servicing” radio, and “promoting” to radio (read the article called “Why You Have To Promote To Radio”.) Promoting to radio means you have dialog/conversation with the person at the station, and this requires phones calls and emails. After all, you want to actively talk WITH the person about his/her activities, gripes and stories. That is promotion. Just getting the music to them is simply “servicing” (which is a subset of marketing).

Now, we don’t have anything against digital delivery itself; we provide it to every client for free (it’s called email). But the real problem with those digital delivery services is what they allow you to believe. We hear a lot of artists who said, “I paid $200 and my song was sent to 2000 stations, and the report said that 600 of them played it on air!” If you are believing this kind of stuff, your career is going to be having a multitude of problems.

First off, no commercial PD is going to be playing anything from “just an email”. It must come from a person/group that he is talking to or has talked to in the past, be it you, a promoter, a label, or an uncle. From just this group of people, the PD is already overwhelmed by many thousand of releases that he could never play because his playlist is already packed. He would never need to add to this universe by clicking on some email.

Second, even non-commercial MD’s primarily play stuff that comes through “a person/group that he is talking to or has talked to in the past”, although that person/group may be roommates, workmates, bandmates, schoolmates, drinking mates, etc. Now these non-commerical MD’s might actually open the email, but then again they might just instead open the mp3′s sent to them by “the group” first, and never get to the distro email.

Continuing: How many songs do you think are in those digital distro emails? Answer: Every one who paid to be in them. That’s right, the more popular they become, the more drowned out you get. In 2003 you thought getting your music on myspace was a low-cost answer to promotion, but now there are millions on there. It’s kinda like having a phone number: Every radio station and label in the world can call you, but how many do? In comparison, when we send out our “digital servicings” (an email) for a client, there is always the same number of artists in them: One.

And how about the “reports” that tell you how many listened and/or played the track? Well, if the reports ARE telling the truth, then an “opened email” can simply mean that the person simply “previewed” it by accident (still counts as a “read”), without really opening it. And if he did open it and started hearing it, he rarely gets all the way through it (just like when they review CD’s… they know from the first few seconds if it’s for them or not). So a “listened” on the report could really mean “damn that track sucked”. Lastly, IF he really heard all of it, what are the chances of him actually using it? He first has to get to the tracks recommended by the people in his “group”.

The real problem, however, is that some of the services are just plain lies. Since they control the reports, they just fill in the numbers to make you happy. No, they’ll never admit it, and they’ll defend to the death that they’d NEVER make stuff up on your report. So here’s what to do: If a report says it was “played on air”, then contact some of the people at those stations and ask them. Contact at least 20% of them. Also, check the station’s website for their playlist, and for your track on it. Don’t let the digital service people tell you which ones you can check into, YOU go check without telling them.

Let’s look now at practicality. Why is an email (with tons of tracks) on it of any interest to anyone, when you have this thing called the web available that has cool sites like CDBaby, MySpace, etc.? Radio stations (and everyone else) has access to basically every song ever made, instantly. Getting more on top of this is just not needed. What radio DOES need is some indication of growth of the song: Gigs are happening, press is printing, sales are occurring, other stations are playing, etc. And they expect this information to come to them through the usual “group” that they usually get this info from.

Digital only: Some folks are now attempting a “digital only” release. We, personally, don’t really care how the stations get the track, as long as they do. We know that they are only going to play it if we have a good phone/email conversation with them anyway. However, physical CD’s (and anything else physical that can be mailed) do stand out more, and are easier for them to “recall getting” than just our email we send. So we recommend making CD’s, if for nothing else, to sell at gigs as well as send to radio.

Lastly, would we recommend a “digital delivery service” if used along with a regular (human) promotion campaign? Well, it wouldn’t hurt, but it won’t help, other than MAYBE (for college radio only) them seeing it one more time, and thus MAYBE remembering it a bit more. But so far I’ve not seen this happen: Any action/results that a client achieved was due solely to our calls/emails alone, and the digital service was never even mentioned by the stations.

Bryan Farrish Promotion is an independent promotion company handling airplay, talk radio interviews, and gig promotion. 310-998-8305  www.radio-media.com. airplay@radio-media.com