Last year I wrote about this subject and I wanted to add some new information. So check out what I wrote and peep the new information at the end.

written:
06/18/2011

Hey, I got this banging song and radio will not play it, is a question that a lot of new artists have? The answer to the question is both simple and complex at the same time. It is simple in the fact that you need a hit, it is complex in the fact that you believe you have a hit, who is right?

The public is right! Every new artist must work their record and gain a buzz either online or on the street. No radio station will play your records without a buzz. What I mean by buzz is, you must have the general public talking about you. People must be talking about you everywhere, (i.e. have you heard the new song from "?"). Your name must become the next hot topic at school, at the club, at church (if you are a gospel artist) or online. Once you have an established buzz, radio will take a chance on your record, not before. Having friends and family call radio stations to request your song DOES NOT WORK! That is a myth. Think about it, you work at a station and you know all of the artists that have hits, then all of a sudden out of the blue you get 50 requests for MC Ray Ray's song  "hot mess". You as a DJ, have never heard of this artist but they are getting a lot of requests out of the blue! You know those calls are not real and they will be discarded. Legitimate requests are for artists that people know or who have started to create a buzz.

So to that end, nothing happens overnight, you must grind and put in work. Then and only then, will your record get played.


P.S. Also QUALITY DOES MATTER! Have your song Professionally mixed and mastered because even the most banging song will get overlooked at a radio station if it sounds bad. Also do not send in CD'R copies with the title written with a sharpie that is just plain ole' unprofessional and will immediately get thrown away.

Update:
6/25/2012

In addition to the above don't do's, never flood a program director or music director's email box with your music if you have not put in the work to create a buzz.  PD's and MD's get hundred's of songs per month via email as most people send their music that way now. Your songs will get passed over and never opened if they have not heard of you and sending them every week or every month will not get you noticed but it will get your address blocked.  Just sayin' 

Keep Bangin'
Crazy C.

I often get mixes for mastering or track for mixing that have vocals that sound horrible. Now I understand that not everybody has a Neumann u87, AKG C 414 or a Rode NTK tube mic. Those are my favorite mics, by the way.. But you really don't have to have any of those to get a good sound.  First you need to make sure that your recording environment is quiet, then take of all eq's; vocals should never be recorded with eq. You should also try to use some sort of reflexion filter if you are recording in an open room as well as a popper stopper to help reduce "p" popping.