Internet Radio and the Hobbyist

Don’t Fall For The Hype

Let me preface the following by saying that this doesn’t apply to all home based internet radio stations.

For the indie artist there is no greater feeling than hearing their music played on the radio. Commercial radio is a difficult mountain to climb considering that most are owned by large media companies such as Clear Choice or iHeart and most non-commercial radio stations are occasionally staffed by volunteers, so where does this leave the artist?

Intro the home based hobbyist internet radio station. This is a platform where anyone can broadcast from their bedroom, while eating fruit loops, and lounging in their undies. The next couple of examples are aimed more towards the Country music genre.

A lot of these stations have a built-in audience of usually a couple dozen to a couple hundred. Among this built in audience are family and friends of either the artist, or the internet radio station itself.They offer no real value to your career other than to say “hey, look i’m on the radio”.

The big weekly countdown this is another area where it means very little of anything, much outside bragging rights. These countdowns are normally fixed and pre-determined based on whoever contributes financially or promotes the radio station the most. These stations will usually target younger people who are just starting out, and who do not really know any better or they will target those who are middle aged that are trying to live out their childhood dreams.

Now lets take a look at the DJs themselves, and trust me there are some characters to say the least. One dj for example is very misogynistic towards the female artists that he plays. He is overtly sexual at times and very inappropriately intrusive. I have read the messages from one artist where said DJ is inquiring about her menstrual cycle, and then turning it into something of a sick sexual fantasy of his. He has zero respect for women and hides behind the fact that he is a DJ and is helping them by playing their music.

In reality, he is more of an overweight Lucky the leprechaun from south Florida. Every year he attends Daytona Bike Week just to see how many women he can subject to his lecherous behavior. This man is one walking case of #metoo just waiting to happen.

This type of behavior is one reason that the female country artist will always have such a hard time. It is hard to be successful whenever you have an asshat DJ promoting this bullshit.

The best advice that I can offer if you want your music heard would be to hire a legitimate radio promotion company. They will push your music out to large market radio stations everywhere. If your budget does not allow you to spend thousands, then you should consider non-commercial public radio stations such as colleges and volunteer staffed stations.

By all means please take time to research the internet station that is wanting to play your music. See if there are any benefits i.e how will it help you, take a look at their audience (are they really getting the reach that you want or is it the same couple dozen people listening).

As mentioned at the start this does not apply to all home based internet radio stations. Some of them are actually about promoting the artist first, and not just using that as a tagline. This one particular DJ is still on the air, and doing his “thing”.

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