10 Tips for Getting Airplay on Radio in South Africa
Indie Artists;
I have many indie artists telling me that it's very difficult for them to get airplay on radio in South Africa.
The reality is that indie acts can get substantial airplay. Artist like Holly Rey, De Mthuda, Sun-El Musician and others are getting substantial airplay and winning awards. The current Top 100 airplay chart has 41 indie artists or 41%. That's encouraging.
Of course, the majors are still dominating and doing an incredible job with marketing and submissions.
But, if you're not getting signed by a major, here are the tips that I believe will assist you, as an indie artist, in getting airplay.
- Write great songs.
- Get it professionally recorded & mastered.
- Ensure your master has all the meta-data embedded on the .wav or MP3. Meta-Data should include CORRECT artist name, title, ISRC Codes, Label Name, Release Date, Genre, Composers, Publishers. Compilers will reject anything that is incomplete.
- Submit correctly to radio stations via professionally formatted email or Email/App (MailChimp) and include both .wav and MP3 formats
- Budget for an experienced plugger to submit and market. Ask the plugger for past successes and recommendation letters or reviews. Many acts spend R5000+ to record one song but have nothing left to market. An experience plugger will have radio contacts and relationships. This is the ONLY way to get airplay if you don't have your own network. A plugger will charge approx. R2,500+ per month for a 3-month campaign. Negotiate deliverables i.e.: Submission and Follow-Ups - R2,500, AirPlay on up to 10 Stations R3,500, Airplay on 10+ Stations R5,000 etc.
- Send your music to targeted stations that play your genre of music.
- Create awesome marketing assets, bio's pic
- Be very active on social media platforms.
- Plays lots of gigs and get a fan base.
- Do it again and again