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In the past 10 years, the music industry has seen many changes. From digital downloads and how we actually listen to music to recording and the various ways musicians mix and actually sell their music to the listening public. The same is true in promoting music to radio. There have been changes. While the key ingredients to promoting any one recording to radio remains the same... good music and good relationships, the landscape for such promotion has changed.
In the nineties, any station with Gavin Reporting status (Gavin Radio Magazine) was considered of upper echelon tier. This meant better service from higher profile labels, more premiums for Fund Drives and more attention from said promoters. These stations were generally in larger markets or met Gavin prerequisites for reporting status such as a specific number of hours dedicated to Jazz Airplay or major wattage and cumulative listenership. Also, all criteria for actual reporting was extremely vague. Stations could simply FAX, e-mail or phone in their respective Adds/Drops and rotations for the week, resulting in a Heavy, Medium or Light status for any given CD in their current rotation, but not weighted. This created large generalizations. What is heavy at one station might be remarkably different than what is heavy at another station in terms of gross spins per week. Also, a heavy in one market such as New York was equal to a heavy in a much smaller market such as Tuscaloosa, AL. Thus, room for error was great and room for influence greater.
Reporting today is different. Several years ago a company called Media Guide came into the lives of Non-Commercial radio, bringing with them 21st Century Technology that has greatly influenced our state of radio in a positive fashion. All CDs worked by Groov Marketing are sent to Media Guide for what is called an Audio Fingerprint. As a result, any CD worked by Groov can be tracked by spins anywhere in the Top-200+ markets nationally, down to the date, time and song. Mediaguide also keeps track of overall spins by week and month, giving empirical evidence of spin totals which provide a useful tool for labels, managers, distributors and artists alike, leaving little room for error and a more realistic representation of a CDs progress.
Gone are the days of manual reporting, and online editorials such as Jazz Week are now wired in to Mediaguide uploading all numbers weekly to provide a solid Top-50 Chart.
How Groov Gets Results
Set-up:
Every release Groov Marketing & Consulting works has a minimum two week Set-Up period in which stations are prepped about your music, given insight as to the scope of the project, the nature of the music, the musicians featured, key cuts and radio friendly suggestions. This buzz period is key in effective promotion. Depending on which campaign you choose, Groov starts Set Up 2, 3 or 4 weeks prior to the first official week.
Strategic Mailing:
The day Groov Marketing & Consulting starts Setting Up your CD is the day it mails to radio. This ensures that your CD arrives in a timely manner for Music directors at the National Level have time to audition and program for your intended add date. * We also offer mailing services
Street Date Parallel:
We find that most Record Labels want to parallel their respective street date for a given release as close to a radio promotion campaign as possible. That's exactly what we try and do at Groov Marketing & Consulting. This increases the chance of your CD being available at the retail level while it's being promoted to radio. However, an artist will often start a tour prior to Street. When this happens, Groov will send advances to tour markets in advance prep of the show and retail date.
The Push:
Our first week at radio with your project is known as the Add week. Adds in key markets at the national level are key charting to charts and magazines. Although we try and get any add obtainable, we primarily focus on Jazz Week stations monitored by Media Guide as well as College Music Journal and key large market, Jazz Oriented stations. During our first week, we make every effort possible to obtain a majority of Adds and garner as much real airplay as possible. By doing so, we not only grab a chance of possibly making the print as a Most Added release for the week, we narrow our goal at closing other monitored panelists/stations in future weeks. This often times impressesChart watching programmers who may be on the fence of playing a particular title until it charts. The more airplay and spins your album receives, the likelihood of charting and buzz is created. We know this, so the first week is the big push. Radio Tracking Reports are available the following Wednesday, indicative of the prior weeks airplay. Groov Marketing Reports include new Adds, commentary, status of the CD, market size as well as spin counts and other features. Also included are Media Guide spreadsheets that highlighting specific dates, airplay times and songs. All new clients receive a tracking key to decipher the tracking codes.
Campaign Choices:
Currently, Groov Marketing & Consulting offers 3 official Campaigns; Life at Radio, Standard Campaign and Awareness. Each campaign is geared towards what both Groov and our client agree serves the best purpose for the release in question. Concerns of music type, airplay potential and client budget are also taken into consideration.* It is imperative that a release is worked to its optimum, by doing so we insist that every Standard+ radio promotion campaign be worked a minimum of 6 weeks (Not including Set-Up). Throughout the years we've found that 6 weeks is about enough time to find weather or not a station will audition, add or continue to play a new release.
* ALL CAMPAIGNS SUBJECT TO QUOTES
1) Life at Radio-Our most popular radio campaign choice offers clients a minimum of 2 free weeks of Set Up, 10 weeks of radio promotion, tour support, Groov Marketing Web Feature, interview opportunities (with station interest), weekly consulting, weekly client reports, mailing labels and a chance for artists to make thank-you calls to station that have supported their release. Also, with a Life at Radio campaign, if the CD is still progressing at Radio 10 weeks in, Groov will work the CD until both parties feel the music has peaked at radio, generally indicative of either lack of chart position or a decrease in weekly Adds.
2) Standard Campaign-Our standard radio campaign is essentially the same as the Life at Radio Campaign but the release is worked 6-7 weeks and there is no Groov Web Feature. This campaign is good for those who want to make a statement at radio but are also on a tighter budget.
3) Awareness Campaign-Groov Marketing Awareness campaigns are generally worked anywhere from 4-6 weeks and have no chart expectation. These are budgeted campaigns that allow programmers the choice to Add a CD to their play-list without our added pressure. These campaigns are typically CDs that might not make the Top-50 chart anyway due to their outside qualities or the artists limited exposure.
Groov also offers specialty campaigns tailor-made to the specific needs that many records have. If it's Avant, Swing, Fusion or College, Groov has e-mail and mailing lists to suit your needs.
The Extension:
If an album is doing extraordinarily well, we often suggest an extension. We offer extensions in 2 week increments passed the originally agreed campaign for every Standard Campaign. How do we know if your record is doing well? Indicators would be positive chart numbers, continued Adds and conversions in the 6th week, as well as product giveaway requests.
Interviews, Phone Calls, Station IDs and Giveaways:
An integral part of our radio campaign is generating radio interest by way of In-House or phone interviews, thank-you calls and liners from artists. We also encourage managers and labels to parallel tour dates with retail and radio dates to make this effort even more effective. As for giveaways, anyone in non-commercial radio understands the importance of product giveaways for fundraisers and artist features. We ask that every radio campaign be accompanied by at least 30 In-House CDs for us to use at our disposal in support of such events.
Maintenance:
As a courtesy, Groov Marketing & Consulting often works a release an extra week past the initial campaign agreement as maintenance while the CD winds itself down at radio. This lets stations know that we are still interested in the CDs performance and we also find that stations that we're not early believers will pick up on the buzz later in the game. We do not offer radio reports on maintenance.
The Key:
Caring for the music and relationships! We love what we do! Although we primarily work Jazz, we are simply music lovers and any will do! Most of the people we work with feel the same way and many of the programmers that will be adding your record have been our friends or close business associates for years. When we make calls on your behalf, we get through and benefit from the relationship and love of music. That's our key to success.
Stations:
Our Straight-Ahead Jazz List is ever changing due to constant research at approximately 380 stations. Again, these stations include Jazz Week Monitored Stations, Non-Monitored/Small Market Jazz Stations, Community Radio Affiliated Jazz Stations, NPR and all Core College Jazz Stations.
Reporter? Non Reporter? Monitored?
Reporting stations were those that by virtue of a weekly play-list, report that list or Top-10 with new Adds every week to a specific on-line chart or trade magazine contingent on genre. However, with exception to certain CMJ reporters, stations no longer manually report, they are monitored by Mediaguide.
Tours & Micromarketing
While Groov Marketing does not currently offer campaigns for specific regions, we are offering Tour Campaigns. We realize that artists sometimes need a boost between records, and while touring helps keep an album fresh, promoting the tour can be difficult. Let us know where and how long you are touring and we may be of help. Because tours vary greatly, please call us for a quote and to discuss.
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