Not long ago, a major-label radio promotion executive had a song climbing into the top 10 in his format. Eager to maintain the track’s upward momentum, he tried to get a station in a small city in the Northeast to put the song into rotation. There was only one problem: That station worked with a middleman, known as an independent radio promoter, who controlled what tracks received airplay. And that middleman demanded $3,000 for an “add.”
“It frustrates the hell out of me,” the executive says. “But if you don’t pay, you don’t move up,” he notes, referring to the radio airplay charts.
Adding to the frustration: The cost was high enough to make even a deep-pocketed major label think twice. In the world of independent labels, though, $3,000 to get one song played on one station in a small market can be prohibitive. “Majors can throw so much money at a release and get it running up the chart,” says one executive with experience running radio campaigns for indie labels. “As an independent label, you can get something played at a small handful of commercial stations. Once your budget runs out, you almost have a built-in ceiling.”
