Why Radio in the US play the same songs?
Posted: June 10th, 2009 by Khoa Le in Audience, Random thoughts | 5 Comments »To be honest, I’m trying to figure that out myself. Major Radio stations are owned by Clear Channel. I’m pretty sure Payola still exist and program directors are corrupted? This is probably more of a venting blog about Radio. Are there any pop stations in the US that don’t play the same 10-20 songs every 30 min? Are people actually requesting for these songs over and over even after 6 months?
So the question is why do these program directors play the same playlist? I’m so tired of the Ne-Yo song “Mad”, and Lady Ga Ga “Pokerface”, and the Jamie Foxx “Blame it”.
I can drive 30 minutes to a location and hear the same song played twice on 1 radio station. What’s worst when I’m flipping to other channels, I hear the same songs! It’s not like it’s a coincidence. The chances of them playing the same song is so high because there’s only a limited amount of songs being played. So what’s the solution to this? I turn off the radio, load up songs I want to listen to, and then find out from my peers on what’s the latest hot song. Radio doesn’t give us the latest hot song. DJ’s aren’t breaking records like they use to…..When I’m hanging out in a club, I hear DJ’s playing stuff 4 years ago and back. Where are the new records that should be broken? Services like Digiwaxx suppose to be that type of service where they get records from Indies and try to establish reviews and if they like it, they get played in a club. Not once in a few years have I heard any DJ’s from NY break a new record. They all play the same top 40 club songs. It’s boring, it’s crazy, and very annoying…..
I believe if the public demand for better music and actually push for new music on radio, then it would boost the chances for talented Artist/producers/writers to become successful. Any comments? Please do leave one…..
So you ask the question, “Why Radio in the US plays the same songs?” Well, let me do what they do in business a lot, answering a question with a question. My question back is, “What is being rewarded?”
Then the next question is are those songs that some people claim to be better actually marketable? Who can make money off of them and how?
Just because you’re a creative person doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to making money from your artistry. If you can demonstrate to a collection of radio stations that your hits represent a large following of customers with money, they will listen to you. How to do that? That’s what everybody from Large Radio Corporation Studio Collection to Small Guy in Closet-Sized Studio wonders.
If your niche of music is too small, it won’t be seen as a worthwhile investment. If it has potential, they’d like to speak to you before any of their competitors do, whether that’s other radio stations or other forms of media altogether.
One other thing: The real creative formula is called “buy low, sell high.” It appears in a book called _Successful Intelligence_. It’s also what the stock market is about.
Too many things in business operate on fear nowadays. That’s why companies play it safe, yet you are right, the listener gets bored. With the terrible economy seen worldwide, now is actually a great time to take a risk on an “unproven” performer with talent simply because you’ve got nothing to lose.
Ya, I definitely see your point of view to this. It’s always been like this, but I think it’s just worst now. I mean we really don’t know how many listeners are really tired of this music. It could be just my circle of people that’s feeling the same way as I do, and from beyond maybe like the twilight zone, those people are really really enjoying what’s going on in radio.
Imagine you have 50% of people writing emails, texting stations, and calling stations up asking why are they playing those same songs over and over again. You would think the program directors would question it no? The companies/people that pay for advertisement to be behind one of the “hit” songs really believe people are listening to a song like “Blame it”? Instead of thinking that people are turning the channel when hearing the record?
I just believe that payola is in play and from what I know of radio(maybe not NY radio) that you can pay middlemen xx amount of dollars to gaurantee radio spins especially down south. And those are what Major’s utilize to get the same damn songs across the country to play. And actually keeping the majors relevant in this industry. I just don’t know…
According to Theodor Adorno (1920s-1960s), the music industry promotes standardized music to prevent people from reflecting on their position in the world and to promote passivity.
Again, this is why the industry is the way it is right now. They tried to control the public and now they can’t. Heh