The 11th of May 2016 will go down as one for the history books; this was the day when SABC COO announced that all SABC radio stations were subjected to a 90% Local music policy. This is by far the greatest news South African artists have heard in a very long time.
This means a lot of things, for one it means more royalties to local artists, secondly more exposure of local music which will eventually lead to more artist exposure and thus more performance bookings by event promoters.
However this also means more work from artists, the 90% Local music doesn’t imply that everything local will make it into the playlist. The Quality international music needs to be replaced by quality local music, so we need to raise the bar especially up and coming artists.
This new policy will definitely attract more music submission to radio station, so competition is going to be a bit tough, there are already heavy catalogs from established artists that haven’t received enough fair play in the past. So it’s not going to be that simple for up and Coming artists, but there are few things that can be done to improve their chances such as:
Familiarize Yourself with Radio submission requirements
Radio stations have different formats that they use and different ways that you could send your music to them. Getting this wrong could jeopardize them receiving your music or play listing it as you may have failed to follow simple instructions. Click here to read a previous article that I touched on the different channels used to send music to major radio stations.
Package your music in a Presentable manner
Its simple psychology that a person will give something that looks good on the outside the first preference, so ensure your CD submission is presentable.
Register your Music with Samro
Almost all the radio stations that I know require music to be registered with Samro and Risa or any other similar organization before it can be play listed or played on air. Registration of your music also means royalties every time your music is played on radio. Do not forget to include the SAMRO/RISA Codes assigned to each of your songs; this is used to track how many times your music was played so royalties are paid accordingly. Click here to read on the process of registering your music.
Create Hype That will Grab The attention of Radio Stations
There are simply things that you can do that will put a bit of pressure on radio stations, Get your friends, team and family to continuously call in and request your music , Let them tweet , Facebook and tag the respective stations. It’s a long shot but they’ll eventually take notice and be curious who this artist is that people want to hear so much. There are many strategies you can think of that are bound to catch the attention of Radio personalities.
Lastly, Do not give up, Keep Submitting until your play listed
Getting your music on radio as an up and coming artist will still be a bit challenging as we all know how messed up the system is . Only established artists get airplay, some even though they are established, they still need to bribe to get airplay so imagine as an up and coming artist. So the Key is to keep submitting your music without losing faith even when they don’t playlist you. Sometimes it’s not that your music is not good but it’s because they haven’t listened to your CD as yet.
Quality and Good music stands a better chance of getting on radio if sent through the right channels and all requirements are met. So don’t just rock up at Metro or 5FM to drop your music without doing your research on their submission requirements and procedures.
