Picking new songs to put into rotation, is a little like picking fruit.
Yeah, you want to select the best of what's at market. But what's out there is seasonal.
October is a funny month.
If you've got an established artist with an anticipated record (Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons), you want the album out in August, at the latest, September. This gives the album enough time to build through the fall and be lodged in folks' brains for the holiday season.
Its hard to break a record once November hits and the Christmas music starts and people have less time to pay attention or invest in something new.
So October is filled with releases that trade in on highly recognizable names with easily identifiable projects.
Paul Simon? Live album? You don't need a road map to figure out what this is going to sound like.
Olivia Newton John and John Travolta? Together for a Christmas record? You know what that is and can buy it (if you're a fan) without ever hearing a note.
The downside of this, if you are someone in the business of promoting records, is that each week it is a foregone conclusion that the radio stations you are calling on are devoting at least one of their coveted openings to these major releases, at the expense of the young bands you are promoting.
Most of the record promoters who call mvyradio know that we only add 2 or 3 songs every week. So I had this conversation a number of times last Friday:
Promoter: Do you know what you are going to add on Monday? Do you have room for (the record I'm promoting that you just said you like)?
PJ: I'll probably only add two songs on Monday. And one of them is going to be the new Stones track.
Promoter: Yeah, that's what everybody is saying. Stones this week. Adele last week.
And actually both "Skyfall" and "Doom And Gloom" are pretty good songs. So I don't might them hogging the real estate.
But it must be frustrating to be a promoter in October.
Hear the song on Youtube.
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