Archive for October, 2007
Clear Channel Refuses to Play Bruce Springsteen
(From FoxNews.com)
Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year for “Magic,” an album full of singles and a sold-out concert tour.
Alas, there’s a hitch: Radio will not play “Magic.” In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from “Magic.” But it’s OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as “Dancing in the Dark,” “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA.”
Just no new songs by Springsteen, even though it’s likely many radio listeners already own the album and would like to hear it mixed in with the junk offered on radio.
Why? One theory, says a longtime rock insider, “is that the audience knows those songs. Of course, they’ll never know these songs if no one plays them.”
“Magic,” by the way, has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release on Oct. 2 and likely will hit the million mark. That’s not a small achievement these days, and one that should be embraced by Clear Channel.
But what a situation: The No. 1 album is not being played on any radio stations, according to Radio & Records, which monitors such things. Nothing. The rock songs aren’t on rock radio, and the two standout “mellow” tracks — “Magic” and “Devil’s Arcade” — aren’t even on “lite” stations.
The singles-kinda hits, “Radio Nowhere” and “Living in the Future” — which would have been hits no questions asked in the ’70s, ’80s and maybe even the ’90s, also are absent from Top 40.
What to do? Columbia Records is said to be readying a remixed version of “The Girls in their Summer Clothes,” a poppy Beach Boys-type track that has such a catchy hook fans were singing along to it at live shows before they had the album. Bruce insiders are hopeful that with a push from Sony, “Girls” will triumph.
I’m not so sure.
Clear Channel seems to have sent a clear message to other radio outlets that at age 58, Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations. This completely absurd notion is one of many ways Clear Channel has done more to destroy the music business than downloading over the last 10 years. It’s certainly what’s helped create satellite radio, where Springsteen is a staple and even has his own channel on Sirius.
It’s not just Springsteen. There is no sign at major radio stations of new albums by John Fogerty or Annie Lennox, either. The same stations that should be playing Santana’s new singles with Chad Kroeger or Tina Turner are avoiding them, too.
Like Springsteen, these “older” artists have been relegated to something called Triple A format stations — i.e. either college radio or small artsy stations such as WFUV in the Bronx, N.Y., which are immune from the Clear Channel virus of pre-programming and where the number of plays per song is a fraction of what it is on commercial radio.
(I think the aforementioned artists should sue Clear Channel for age-ism. What sort of industry is this when the #1 album can’t get radio airplay? WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?)
Sunrise Promotions Artist Josh Kelley to Rock For Darfur
Sunrise Promotions is proud to announce that Josh Kelley will be part of the Rock For Darfur series of concerts to be held worldwide on November 10th. Josh will be performing with The Pat McGee Band at The Exit/In in Nashville, TN.
For information on these shows, please visit the Rock For Darfur website.
On November 10th, go to a concert and fight for human rights.
Word of Mouth Rules
This is why we do street teams. The best form of advertising is word of mouth:
According to a recent Nielson survey:
…while traditional media still makes its mark on consumers, the most powerful determinant behind purchasing decisions for a whopping 78% of respondents is word of mouth.
78%… that is a LOT. And that’s why street teams can be such a valuable tool to musicians and bands. Street teams put word of mouth in the hands of your fans and those fans take it to their friends and family and make other fans who take the word and put it in the ears of their friends and family and so on and so on and so on…
More about the Nielson findings can be found here:
Advertising? Forget It. Word of Mouth Reigns!
Giving Music Away…
Two links about the new “trend” of artists giving their music away and why it just might work: