NAJM Rant - Radio & Distribution



		Dance Music... Designed To Fail? Volume 2
		Radio It's quite sickening to think of all the incredibly appealing dance music that will never see the light of day on radio. I'm not talking about Internet radio or college stations, I'm talking about the top 40 and so called dance/urban stations that could help you move more than 50K units in the course of a few months if they "embrace" your project. A certain radio station in Miami who claims to be dance (usually around the time of WMC) is nothing more than a watered down urban hip hop station that plays freestyle and cheese trance more than it has or will ever play real dance music.


	Ever wonder why dance music rarely has a chance on these stations? It's a matter of pure economics… or should I say the bottom dwellers once again. Call me naļve, but I was actually surprised and outraged (as you should be) that many of the stations require a "paid subscription" in order for them to play your music. How many dance labels can afford the $1500+ a week to hear their music on the radio? I can think of two in New York…and guess whose music you're hearing on the radio. Of course these individuals will deny this till hell freezes over, and I have no proof, so perhaps it's only a hunch? Distribution This one is quite interesting in its own right. Unless your blessed with a large national distributor you are left to fend for yourself with the Independent Distributors who hold the accounts for all the mom and pop shops out there as well as have in roads to the national chains. Record stores do not like to buy directly from labels. Actually, record shops WILL NOT BUY directly from you no matter what you think. They typically like to do business with existing distributors who they have accounts with. This infrastructure can be quite powerful in getting your product in the stores, but will do nothing to help you sell it. Also watch out for the "send me some free promos" shops out there. This will do nothing for you, it only serves to pad the pockets of the people who run the stores. The very concept of obtaining distribution is also a flawed one. Most distributors won't deal with you unless you're selling a lot of records. Well how the hell can you do this if you can't get your product into stores? The cart is most certainly ahead of the proverbial jackass. Distributors are also a zero risk group of people. That's why everyone tells you that you won't be paid until your second release sells through. Why is that? Distributors do not assume any financial risk and want a "buffer" of money they owe you. The fact that they can return 100% of the product back to you 100% of the time for any reason (and you still pay the shipping) is absurd and can often deplete this "buffer". In the U.K. this is not the case, and guess what… dance music is largely more available and profitable over there. Consumers constantly complain that they can't find the dance music that they're looking for in a store, so are left with no other option than to download it. Internet distribution will get rid of this hurdle in time and the traditional distributors will collapse to the benefit of dance music.

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