How Do I Get On The Radio | Wendy Day Interviews Mike Matthews

Hi guys, thanks for tuning in. This is Wendy Day. I have a friend with me and we're gonna talk about radio because you guys call me with so many questions about radio. This is Mike Matthews.

Mike Matthews, how are you today? Doing great, Wendy. Thanks for having me. I hope today you will be able to give your viewers a lot more information about radio, how it works, how they too can get radio and get a fair shot at it. And, uh, and so forth.

Good. Well, Mike, would you start by introducing yourself? Like, where are you from? How did you get involved in the music industry? Will you show us your ponytail? Ponytail power!

Yeah, here it is. That's kind of like the big thing. Um, I think I've been synonymous— for those that know me, everybody says, hey, they don't remember the name, they remember the ponytail. So they say, hey, go look for the guy with the ponytail, he can get your record played. Um, my name is Mike Matthews, for those that don't know who I am. Our company is radioairplaypros.com, or Radio Airplay Professionals, radioairplaypros.com. Actually, we kind of have been doing radio marketing. I've been in the game for 27 years. I've started working with companies like Rap-A-Lot in the early, early days, you know, when they barely registered a house and nobody really knew who they were. Did a lot of PR work back in the day from Priority Records, Def Jam, a lot of the earlier companies when they were first getting started. So I was able to get some good introductions into the business, meeting a lot of great people like Ice Cube and Public Enemy and the Ghetto Boys and things. So it was a fantastic ride. Little did I know it was gonna turn into more of the promotion end, getting in, starting from publicity and doing on-tour PR for a lot of different people, learning a lot more about the business, doing artist management for a while. And then little did I know I was gonna wind up doing radio promotion and became very successful at it. We actually specialize at Radio Airplay Pros in developing new and developing artists. Uh, we've helped launch a lot of careers. A lot of the, the records that you've heard on the radio, you might not have known who was behind it. Um, we helped launch So Icy for Gucci Mane. Um, we did the Stanky Leg for G-Spot Boys. Um, we did the, uh, the Charli Boy I Look Good. I mean, the list kind of goes on and on over the years. Exactly, the "I Smoke, I Drink" for Roy Jones. Um, the list kind of goes on and on. We did the "Laffy Taffy," D4L. Uh, I mean, it's just been so crazy. Yeah, over the years, the, you know, to, to literally take, uh, an artist that no one's ever heard of in life, uh, and help launch the careers and, and see them go on to superstardom. Uh, I remember in the early, early days when I was out on the road and with an artist that had a a band talking about like things like toothaches and all kinds of weird things. And little did I know, I mean, we weren't even performing in front of— I'm not exaggerating when I say 10 people. And little did I know she was going to become a superstar. That was Gwen Stefani, who's now on The Voice and performing in front of stadiums and things. And like I said, again, nobody knew, uh, the potential of stardom that she was going to have at a very, very young age. So And here was a band like coming out of Orange County and just going around doing little club gigs and just trying to get on like everybody else. So it's amazing to see what can happen. So I say all that to say, you guys that are tuning in, you could be next. And we say it all the time. Me and Wendy talk, we say, hey, you know what? We don't know who the next Eminem is going to be, the next Dr. Dre, the next, you know, Tupac, whoever it may be. But we're looking for you. And the reality is, is everyone has time for a hit record. And, you know, we work hundreds of records here annually, and our focus is we don't know, we don't know where that next one's going to come from. So our anticipation is we, we give you an honest day's work for an honest day's dollar. We want to make sure that, uh, your record gets a shot because we know a lot of this business is very political, uh, and so through that we want to make sure that if the record gets a shot that it has some legs If we got us one, we got us one. If we don't, we want to build a strong enough foundation to where we can grab the next one and keep building.

So Mike, what should somebody do before they come to you, or should they come to you like right out of the studio with their record?

Well, we have clients that have done both. That's an excellent question. A lot of what we prefer is that there's some foundational work done. I mean, obviously in today's markets, you want to make sure you have a social media presence. You want to make sure— key thing is that your music is up for sale or it's up at streaming outlets. Now we have to talk, we You can't just say like the good old days, make sure your song is through distribution and it's in the stores. The reality is, is you don't want to start attacking radio and no one can find your record anywhere. And that's really the key because if you're starting to reach the masses, which radio is just that, it's mass media. A lot of people don't associate radio is just like television. It's on that side of the fence. It's reaching the masses. It has nothing to do with street promotion and all the various other aspects. Is that you want to make sure that your ducks are in a row, as we call it, because what radio programmers are going to do is, is they're not just going to be playing records that they can't research, that they can't find anywhere. Is anyone talking about it on social media? Is it Shazaming? Is it, is it doing any kind of research? Is it sound scanning? Is there any kind of product movement whatsoever? And what a lot of people overlook when everybody talks about research, what they really don't understand is the core of research of what programmers do. It's beyond just playing a record. It's making sure that you're music is impacting their market. Because if they're playing a song and nobody's streaming it— say in Atlanta, they're playing a song and nobody's streaming it in Atlanta, nobody's downloading in Atlanta, nobody's talking about it in Atlanta, but you're telling everybody you have all the strip clubs on lock, you have all the clubs playing it, the streets are on fire, but nothing is going on in that metro market— obviously, sure, they're gonna look at what's happening in Houston and Miami and Charlotte and all these other areas, but And they're looking at— what they're looking for is trends in terms of records that are growing that they may want to start looking at and seeing if it's gonna— hey, it's working for this market, it might work for mine as well. But the reality is you want to make sure your i's are dotted and t's are crossed within the backyard of that particular market, whether you reside there or not. Those are the key things to do first before approaching radio, because once you approach radio, whether you hire companies like Radio Airplay Pros or others, is that you want to make sure there's some kind of story there. The stronger the story, the greater the chances. What we call— it's, it's in our world, we say it's easy to get a record played, but it's harder to keep it played, right? And so that's what you want to make sure of, is that it's not just about getting it played, it's about that continual rotation. That's why it's not called we play records, it's called programming. It's— that's for a program director, it's programming radio. And what it's about is programming the listener's ear to be able to say, hey, you know what, this is a sound that I'm in tune with. And as you keep hearing it more and more and more, that's why we used to hear back in the day where, I won't mention any names, but people would say, you know what, I'm not the greatest rapper, I'm the greatest hustler. And we used to hear a lot of things like that because people understood it was a business. It wasn't necessarily all about having this great, great talent. What it was about was understanding how the elements of the business work. And if you can understand that along with having great talent, you could be the next superstar.

So if I live someplace, um, the radio station doesn't owe me any radio play.

It's not exactly that. And that's a big misconception. A lot of people think that radio, they're in business to break your music, to make you a star, to make you all this money and so forth. Radio is in business to sell advertising. It's about, it's about literally keeping people tuned in on that dial, making sure that they know that, you know what, this station is playing great music. And in between that great music, there's that advertising, there's the support that those stations are getting that say, hey, we have X amount of listeners that are guaranteed to hear your ad, and they are not tuning the dial because we play what they want to hear. That's why a lot of people get upset at radio and they say, why do they only play the same 12, 15 songs all day? And that's because the masses are dictating and saying, this is what we want to hear. And until people get in there and change that, people say, well, I can rap better, uh, my production's better. I've heard it all. I'm sure you have too, Wendy. Yeah, we tell them all the time, it's not about that. I mean, most of the time— and I remember even back in the day when there was video promotion was real big with like BET and stuff, people always say, why are they playing this video and that video? And I always go back to the research and I used to always tell them, look at the amount of viewership and all the smaller video shows, the impacts they're having on the market with this video. So a lot of times artists tend to question radio instead of saying, you know what, they know what they're doing. You would think a lot of these stations have been around longer than we have. They know what they're doing. They know what their listeners want to hear or else they would be out of business. So what we need to do is do the reverse. We tell a lot of our clients is, you know, You wanna be unique, you wanna be in your own lane, but you also have to be what we call marketable. You can't be too far left. If radio is playing Drake and Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne and Chris Brown or whoever, you don't have to sound like them, but you have to be marketable just like they are. So that way when your song is played, because we tell people all the time, oh, I want my song played at 12 noon. And you know what we say? We say, can your record be heard between what they're already playing? Because if you don't start making music that is commercial enough, that is satisfactory enough— because they're not going to take Drake off and put your record on, that's obvious. So why not come up with a radio song that's complementary, that's marketable to whether it be that same audience, but also a similar sound and feel to where that programmer, that mixer, that DJ says, you know what, I don't have a problem putting this in my mix. Because you're not so far left where they say, you know, it's like a DJ in a club. Where as soon as they put your record on, the floor is clear. Nobody wants to do that and experience that. Radio is no different. Radio just pays a lot more attention to it. So if you focus on, as you build your brand in a market, and making sure that there's enough research to justify radio playing it, I guarantee you they will play it.

And there's different formats, like your music has to fit within whatever format you're going after. You can't go to urban radio with a song that sounds more country, for example, like a country rap.

That's right. And that's what a lot of people misconstrue. That's why we always say do your research, right? Do your research in terms of understanding. Like I said, it's not to change anyone's sound. It's making sure that you understand your niche. In the early days, working artists like Scarface and the Ghetto Boys, or One of the things that I learned at a young age was that your hometown might not necessarily be where your record's gonna break out at. People didn't understand that the Ghetto Boys had a lot of traction in Hawaii. They were huge in Chicago. There was a lot of other areas that was receptive to that music, and it wasn't necessarily their backyard. And we found that there's been so much conversation in the industry over the years, is everybody saying, "Hey, you gotta get your backyard, you gotta get your backyard." Well, what we've always said is it only takes one market to break a record, big or small. It can always be replicated, and it may or may not be your backyard. A lot of people want to focus on it, obviously, because of what— the expense of it. Working your backyard, you have friends, family, you can move around, so forth, and you can constantly beat the market up. But what if that backyard is not the viable market? So that's why we bring that up, is you say do your due diligence, do your homework, make sure that when you start to map out your marketing plan that you understand. Don't just say, "Okay, you know what, I want Atlanta because that's just a hot market," or "I want Houston because it's a melting pot for talent and nobody's really breaking out of there right now." Whatever it may be, make sure that it's the right fit for what you're doing. And 9 times out of 10, you're gonna find that the audience, the market there, the industry there in terms of radio, retail, whatever it may be, are gonna be more receptive to your sound and what you're doing versus we tell people all the time, we've seen clients, they'll spend a million dollars trying to make Miami love them just because it's what they feel. I want to go break my record there. And it's like, why? When you've got 100 other markets that will embrace you with shows, with interviews, with additional support in all kinds of ways on a fraction of the dollar. So a lot of it is we tell our clients, look, you know, put the ego down, you know, turn the TV off, as they say. And get into reality of the nuts and bolts of this industry of what it's going to take to be successful.

Is it, is it smarter to start maybe then in smaller markets? Like instead of coming at an Atlanta directly, would it make sense to hit Columbus, Augusta, Macon, Greenville? Like I'm kind of going around the city in terms of marketplaces.

It's a great example. I'll use one of our more, what we call, more recent successes. When we did the Cash Out, Cashin' Out record, a lot of people didn't understand the strategy and approach that they thought, okay, he's from Atlanta area, he's just gonna blow up. And he— the reason why he became so successful was because Atlanta got on his back and, and all these wonderful things. Atlanta radio was playing it, and, and, you know, DJ Spence produced it, and, and, you know, he was, you know, a lot of DJ friends at stations and No, it had nothing to do with that because people that really worked that record like us know the truth. That record was broken in Macon, Georgia, and that's why I brought that up. And people didn't really understand that. Macon, Georgia embraced Cash Out as a new and developing artist as a teenager. He didn't even have a mixtape out. He didn't have an album out. Nobody knew where this kid even came from. Nobody knew where he came from. Exactly. It was just like, man, is he a one-hit wonder? Came out of nowhere with this record that kids just gravitated to. But what was very interesting about it, and again, and working that record at radio and understanding how radio works, where it was only getting on average 10 to 15 spins a week in Atlanta, it was getting 100 spins a week in Macon, Georgia. And it was the number one record in Macon, Georgia for several weeks. And a lot of people didn't even know it because they were thinking, oh, he's from Atlanta, this is why everybody's on it. No, they were very smart in their strategy. They worked the streets from the ground up to radio and radio back down to the streets. They took on all of the markets from Columbus, Macon, Savannah, Augusta, all of the surrounding territories that surrounded Atlanta to where they were able to infiltrate Atlanta and really make it grab hold. So by the time that record really started taking on in Atlanta, the groundswell, they couldn't stop it. It was like a freight train. But what was so interesting about the record was that it started growing all throughout the South, all the way to Texas. So you had Houston and Dallas starting to bubble with this kid from Atlanta that nobody ever heard of. And so when you take a mass area like that and you literally clobber the hell out of it, and that's literally what we did, we had every single market from shows to, to street promotion to radio. From across the South lit up like a Christmas tree. And our whole strategy was to be very, very aggressive with it. It was the label CEO was like, his mentality was like, we're gonna go get this. I believe in this. We're gonna force feed it on people, even though this is a kid nobody's ever heard of. And it's, again, it's not a strategy everybody can do, but the bottom line is it worked. What started to happen, and this is what was very interesting about that particular record, we started seeing it break out in the, in the tween market. The kids started gravitating to it on social media. It started creating more of a buzz at the junior high, high school level. And when you start reaching those trends, those kids, those are the ones that are actually buying music at that time. This is a few years ago, streaming was around, but it wasn't as big as it is now. There was still actually downloads of MP3s. So it was the iTunes thing. It was the Amazon thing where people were paying 99 cents for a download. But what people started seeing, and this is something I can attest to, was very interesting, is we started seeing real sales. So it wasn't just about radio, it wasn't just about the street hype and shows. The kid went from doing no features to everybody wanted him on a record and shows and all these things. But what was interesting about it was those kids started buying it, and that was something that the major record labels paid close attention to. It wasn't just hype in the streets. It's, wait a minute, there's 5,000 to 10,000 downloads every week happening here on this kid we never heard of. So the record was actually doing, I believe it was close to 200,000 real downloads before deals even came along, right? We were on our way to gold. And, and that's what was so unique about it, that yes, it went gold as the deal was consummated, but the reality is, is that even if we didn't, the record probably would have went gold anyway because it wasn't just that one-hit wonder syndrome, or what we call a turntable hit. People don't understand the difference between a turntable hit and a hit record, right? A hit record is what people buy, what people believe in, and they're willing to invest their money in. A turntable hit is that record that's played in the clubs, in the streets, that you just want to hear but you're not necessarily going to support. And, and so that's why the, the— in the industry we say everyone has time for a hit record, and a lot of people get it confused and they say, oh man, Everybody in my squad, everybody in my hood is jumping to this record. That doesn't mean you have a hit record. A hit record is what the industry is willing to embrace, invest in. Now you have a legitimate hit record. So that's what we're looking for here at Radio Airplay Pros. If you got that next hit, make sure you bring it to us. We'd love to be a part of it. I love it.

So when somebody comes to you and hires you, do you work, do you work alone? Like, how, how, how does the process work to break a record? Is it about relationships in the marketplace?

Wendy Day, great question. Funny, we were just speaking about that this morning. I don't care what name you drop, there's no one of us that have been responsible 100% for anyone's success, no matter big or small. It's a team effort. We have a big team here, Ready Player Pros, Dominion Marketing. We have affiliates, over 200 people in our network all over the country. When it comes to We've actually took the business model, as we all used to work for major labels, we took that same business model. They have reps all over the country, people that handle various regions, various radio stations, and so forth. It's, it's a conglomerate of us. So it's not just me. I'm just one of many in this company that work records and things. There's no possible way— I always tell people, if one guy tells you he can get your record on 50, 60 stations by itself, he's lying. Straight up, there's no one of us that have that many stations personally. What it's about, it's about a team. It's about multiple people. And what we do at Dominion Marketing, we build a strategy, a plan with you of attack. We know who the players are. It is about what you said, Wendy Day. It's about relationships. We understand. We've been doing this long enough to know what, what individual strengths are. Just like back in the day with street teams, just because you can pass out flyers don't mean you're a street promoter and you can start your own street team, even though there's many that have done that. You know, there's a difference between what we always say, marketing and promotion. Promotion is free. That's passing out the flyers at the clubs, the CDs, and so forth. That's promotion. Marketing is selling, things that you do that affect the bottom line. And I think I've probably been one of the only people in the industry that really talked about the differences. That's why our company is called Dominion Marketing, not Dominion Promotion, because the things that we do affect our clients' bottom line. It makes a difference in their overall career. Obviously, passing out flyers and things, promotional efforts, is great and it's all a part of it, but there's no way— we've never ever seen anyone become successful in this industry on promotion efforts alone without any marketing. So it's a team effort, Wendy Day, no matter what aspect you're looking at, whether it's radio, whether it's street promotion. Even now, with street promotion has now migrated to what's called social media or internet marketing, Now, the presence has changed, but it's still a team effort. There is no one company out here that's dominating, as they say, the social media world, and they're the go-to company that everybody's got to use to— in order to market your record online effectively. That's even become very, very competitive where there's hundreds of companies out here. Everybody's scratching their head, but what we always say is make sure you understand what people's strengths are. Then only then they can be an asset to your company where you'll know exactly how effective they're going to be able to be for you. Because just because they've worked this record, that record, doesn't mean they're going to be able to do the same thing for your record, right? And I think that's one of the biggest misconstrued things in this industry, um, is we've had a lot of people call us and they say, hey, we want what you did with the Cashin' Out record, or what you do with the I Smoke, I Drink, or what you did with the Laffy Taffy, this record, that record. And I said, you know what, First of all, we have to know where you're at because every client, they're working with different budgets, every client has a different team, every client has a different record, everybody's using different producers, different strategies, and so forth. So it's impossible to give someone the same exact results even if they spend the same exact amount of money. And I know you've witnessed this even with your clients, Wendy Day, is so many times independent labels will get caught up in that. They'll say, well, hey, they spent $20 grand on radio and the record blew up, so all I gotta do is spend $20 grand on radio, my record's gonna blow up. What I always remind people of is you have to look at the whole picture. You can't just look at one slice of the pie. What do they say when you order a pizza? Who wants to pay for a pizza guy delivers them one slice, right? Where's the rest of my pizza at? It's, it's, you got to get the whole pie including the toppings. So that's where a lot of independent labels go wrong. Is they think if they just got one or two slices, they're gonna go to the moon, right? Instead of looking at the entire pie and be ultimately successful. So that's kind of our angle as we also consult with our clients, not just do radio services. We always want to make sure our clients understand that just because you're hiring us to do radio promotion and we secure airplay, that's only one part of it. Remember, like I said, the key is not to get the airplay. I'll get you the airplay. The key is to keep the airplay, and that's not on us. We take care of all what's called positioning of records. Our job is to get that song started at radio. All records do what? They start in light rotation. There's no record that comes out here— even major artists don't just come out here and get added to heavy rotation or power rotation out the gate. You've got to start somewhere. But the reality is, is that when that programmer says, you know what, I'm going to give you a shot, even if it's at 2 in the morning, that that record is getting played, it still has to research at 2 in the morning. There still has to be justification of moving that rotation from overnights to day parts. And then even when they move it from overnights to day parts, is there justification to keep it in day parts? Is there justification to increase the spins? And that's the value of radio that people have to understand. It's more than just, hey, you know what, I'm gonna hire a good radio promoter I'm going to get some airplay. Our question is, once you get the airplay, what are you going to do with it? Right, right.

So you mentioned budgets. What, what kind of budget is realistic for a rap record?

It's a—

it—

that's a— that's an excellent question.

Does time of year matter?

Uh, I'll just keep lobbing them at you, just keep hitting them back. I, I'm gonna— I'm gonna address both of them. The reality is that, and we've been doing radio marketing for, like I said, 27 years. I'll be honest, I've never seen a record broke with $10,000 or less at radio. I've never. If somebody's done it, I'm not gonna say it's impossible. I'm not gonna say on camera that it's never been done. We have not witnessed it. I have not witnessed it either. But what we have witnessed is exactly what I said earlier. Yeah, if only that was the case, we'd all be rich, right, Wendy? We'd have tons of successes under our belt. The reality is, is that, like I said earlier, it only takes one station to break a record, but it doesn't mean that if you get one station playing your record, you're out of here. No, it takes that one station to stand up and represent that record and say, hey, you know what, this record is working for me. I believe in that record, and I'm gonna stand up on it.

That's the key, if the record is working for them. That's the key right there.

Exactly. And if the record is working for them, then I've seen it happen time and time again. Every successful record we've been a part of, programmers will pick up the phone. They're on weekly conference calls with sister stations, especially if they're part of major networks, and they talk about records. Hey, this is working for me. And all of a sudden now you've got a station, uh, you know, states over start playing. You don't even know how they got the record. A lot of things happen behind the scenes in this business, or what we call spread the record. There's also what we call triangular markets. A lot of people don't understand because people rarely talk about it, but there's certain There's certain what we call trigger markets in radio, especially in commercial FM radio. There's certain markets and certain stations of what we call impact others. In other words, that if this station is playing it, if this station is standing up on it, if it's working on this station, there's other stations that may not be a part of their network or their affiliation in terms of like if they're a Clear Channel or Radio One station, so forth, What they'll do is they'll mirror their playlist. They'll say, hey, if this new— if this new Gucci Mane or this new Future record is working for XYZ station, well, hey, you know what? It's working for them. Our market's very similar. We're going to give the record a shot and we would have probably worked in Dallas, for example, but potentially, potentially. Exactly. So there's a lot of these trigger markets, we call them in the radio game, that if your record's positioned properly, If your record's working in those markets, we automatically know it's going to lead to other markets, but it's got to make sense. And trust me, even though I'm saying it publicly right now, if you know some trigger markets, you don't think it's very easy to get airplay on because of what I just said. They understand these guys aren't crazy. They know that if they get on a record, they know it's going to trigger other markets and other things may take place. So you have to be very, very careful. I want to also address the second part of the question you asked about seasons. One of the things that was very, very interesting about the Cashin' Out record we worked was that we started December 15th. We started right before Christmas. I would have been terrified to do that, Mike. I would have been terrified. Listen to what you just said, Wendy. Most people, most people say it's the fourth quarter, and at the time there was the usual fourth quarter blitz. There was all the major labels dropping stuff, but we took a different approach to it. One of the things that we got to understanding at radio was we said we're gonna do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. So while everyone else was running the other direction, we looked at it as a window of opportunity, right? So we got together with the label and all the affiliate other marketing guys and everybody that was involved with the Cash Now project, and we said, look, now is the best time. Let's not wait until the spring when everybody's coming back and after the holidays and all those things. Let's go ahead and set the record up. And that's what we did. We spent all of Christmas We worked through the holidays into the new year of just setting the record up. While everybody else was on vacation doing the holiday thing, we were working in the trenches. And we really believe that that's why that record had that much more success, because by February we had a bidding war going on with major labels like Capitol and Def Jam. Everybody wanted to sign this kid, like, who is this? And the reason why that happened was, was when it was nobody else doing anything. There was still actually— they were now getting started come February, March of trying to get their releases set up and now trying to go on radio. We had 200 to 300 spins a week by February 1st, so we were already the number one independent record in the country at that time. So we were a major standout and we were going north. There was nothing going south about it. The spins were continuing to build and increase every week, so it was a whole different strategy before they settled, you know, on the deal with— everybody knows what— L.A. Reid and Epic Records and so forth in March. And then they came on board, and, you know, the rest was history. The song went platinum. So, you know, that's why people always wonder. It's like, um, I'm so proud of my gold more than so much the platinum of it, because I was— we were an intricate part of seeing that song reach to that full success. Hey, Epic and their staff and their team, they did an excellent job bringing it home and taking it platinum plus. But for us, the more the gratitude was seeing a kid from a hood that nobody ever heard of, never even had a mixtape out, see his dream through, get a shot, and turned his entire life around, his family and so forth, all because he had believers. And that's kind of one of the things that we do need to address in this call, Wendy, is that, yeah, we've been talking about budgets, we've been talking about radio, we've been talking about all these things, but the key in this industry is to find a team of believers. Find people you can surround yourself. If you're an up-and-coming artist or you're a label or, uh, you know, you're, you're trying to build your team, you know, it's more than just so much, okay, I gotta get investors. Sure, money's just a tool. You have to be able to have resources to build. But we've seen, and you've seen too, Wendy Day, there's guys out here with millions of all the money in the world, and we call it, we say, can't get arrested in this business because they have a ton of money but they don't have the right team. They don't have the right know-how behind them to be able to know what to do with the money, so a lot of them, they fail. They do a bunch of what we call wonderful things in this business, and the more these wonderful things you do, because what we call watch TV, that's what I say, they're watching TV all the time. They say, oh, okay, this person did this, this person did that, so if I go spend a half a million dollars doing the same thing, I'm gonna get the same results. This is what my answer to that is, and I'm probably the only one in this music industry that has said I symbolize it to when we were all kids, we had those— remember those coloring books? How they had to connect the dots and used to have to draw the line and connect the dots in order to create pictures. Well, the music industry is no different. It's connect the dots. But think about what I'm about to tell you. If each dot represents street promotion, internet marketing, social media, radio, television, publicity, studio and creative aspect, All of those are different dots that you need them all. But what happens, the biggest mistake a lot of independent labels do is they just start drawing lines because they say, oh, I'm doing this, I'm wrapping trucks, I'm putting posters on every telephone pole, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. But what winds up happening is the picture does not come out. There's only one thing you can do to make the picture come out, and that's to follow the process. It has to go in a certain order. So it's not just about doing all these wonderful things, it's 1, 2, 3, 4, and if you do them in that order, you're gonna get the picture, the end result of what you want to achieve. And I think when even like with your clients, why a lot of them want to retain Wendy Day and Company, because not just so much because your track record of success, but it's because you mastered the art of the process. And I think that if people watching this really understand what this video is really about to the core, is that you're retaining client, you're retaining people like us to be able to say, you know what? It's not that you can't do the same thing without us. It's that we understand the process and we're going to make sure that you're not just drawing lines all over the place, that you're going to be able to create the picture exactly that you want to create at the end of the day, to get even closer to your goal, even if it's at the worst case scenario. None of us have a crystal ball, Wendy. We say, you know what, we can't promise people they're going to be the next Lil Wayne or the next Chris Brown, the next Drake or whatever, but what we can promise people is that, you know what, if you respect the process and you're willing to go through it, what we can guarantee is that a Wendy Day, a Mike Matthews will put them steps closer. If we don't get them there, we guarantee that we can get our clients a whole lot steps closer if they respect the process. That is your worst case scenario with us, you know, worst case. So, you know, that's a lot of what it's about. It's about making sure, especially when it comes to radio, that you're respecting the process and not just, hey, give me an Atlanta, give me a New York, give me an LA. Everybody wants that, including all the major artists. What it's about is respecting the process, whether it be starting in a small market if that's all you can get and grow your record, build, find out where your market is, where your niche is, and expand it from there.

Can I, can I do it myself? Like, not me, but as an— if an artist wants to do this themselves, can they go up to their local radio station in Valdosta, Georgia and start getting radio play?

Sure. Um, you know, we call it— and I think in 2017 it's been— you're hearing the term more and more, the DIY thing. It's becoming more and more popular, and I think what did it is this right here, the mouse button. I think the whole internet and technology, everybody's clicking the mouse. I mean, even while we're talking right now, there's probably people researching and looking up if we're mentioning any particular names of this or that particular company, and that's great. That's what people do now. It's not like 20 years ago. When we didn't have the technology we have now, everyone had to seek. I mean, that's when business was good, right, Wendy? I mean, they needed us as service providers. Now we have to battle as service providers against the mouse, against people are saying, you know what, I can do this myself. I don't need a Wendy Day. I don't need a Mike Matthews. And the issue that we have with that, and I'll just say publicly, is that you will always need a Wendy Day. You will always need a Mike Matthews. I'm gonna tell you why. It's because this industry is built on relationships. There's no mouse, there's no internet, there's no nothing that can take away from the human interaction of relationships that will help. That's really what's gonna take your career to the next level. It's not that you click a few mouse buttons and you posted a few pictures on Instagram and now you're a superstar. Sure, there's been people that have obtained notoriety from doing things like that, But the reality is, is that now you're discovered. The reality is, is that you're going to need the human interaction. You're going to need the service providers to help. That's just what we always talked about. It's not about getting the airplay, it's about keeping it. And you know what keeps— you know what keeps airplay? Research. And what controls research? People, not the internet. So, and that's what people don't understand. So people will think— and, and we'll talk about it— the number one thing in radio that everybody knows research is done by is Shazam right now. So a lot of these programmers are looking at, well, how's the record Shazaming in Atlanta? And you're like, what's that? I don't even know how to get my record registered with Shazam. It's not even listed if I go on there. How many records are number 9 on Shazam right now in Atlanta? That's incredible. And, and so, and that's a good example, Wendy. And what that program director in Atlanta is doing is they're looking at that, and they may never even have heard of that artist. They just added— there you go. And what that's telling them is like, wait a minute, our listeners is Shazaming it. And reason why I bring up Shazam is people think it's just a technology thing. Oh, that's on the internet, I can just go click my mouse button and get me 500,000 Shazams and I'm gonna be number one in Atlanta. And like you said, they're gonna add my record and play it. Well, good luck with trying to make that happen. One of the interesting things about Shazam and how it became so strong as an avenue of research is because as of right now, Shazam cannot be manipulated. So it's not like YouTube, you can go get a million views and nobody cares. You got a million Shazams, the world is paying attention, trust me. And I'm gonna tell you why, in case those that aren't familiar with Shazam don't understand what it is. What it is, it's kind of like the whole like thing and thumbs up thing and all of that with all the social media, but the difference is that you can only Shazam once per device. So you only got one cell phone. You got 100,000 cell phones, you're a bad person. You know, they'll say, hey, you can have it then, you can have your 100,000 Shazams. But you can only Shazam from one device, a cell phone, a tablet, a computer at a time. So you can't sit there and just Shazam your record all day long thinking, oh man, I'm gonna be the biggest thing researching in the city like Atlanta. They know better. They know that you're gonna get everybody and their mama to do that all day long. So that's why a lot of programmers utilize things like Shazam that currently cannot be manipulated, that if you got 10,000 I'm gonna put the number out there. If you got 10,000 shazams, you're moving a little bit. You've got some things going on. Because think about what I'm about to tell you. The person hearing your song on the radio has to take their phone out, literally take the time to push on that Shazam app and shazam your song while that song is being played, or go on their computer and do it, or go on their tablet. That means you really like it. I mean, just think about that. You're not sitting there doing that all day long while you're driving. Listen There's some work involved in that. Again, it's like I said, human interaction. So technology is what it is, but we gotta have it. So don't think if you can X out all the people that you're gonna be this superstar. If you can X out all the service providers, that all these wonderful things are gonna be able to happen for you because you're an internet sensation. It doesn't work that way. So internet, and when we say I love it, you know, at the same time It's, it's a stepping stone. It's what we call a way to be discovered, but it's not the end-all game. So Wendy, we're still relevant. We're still here. Thank God.

So Mike, um, a lot of my viewers are very new to the music industry. Could you explain what those lovely things are on the wall behind your head? Well, I'm sorry to embarrass you.

It's okay. You know, they don't know. Yeah, we don't talk about it a lot. Um, you know, as you can see behind us, you know, We get a lot of plaques. These are platinum certifications. You know, we have the Adele 10 million, Justin Bieber quadruple platinum, the Ed Sheeran triple platinum on the single Shape of You. These are things that labels give out to service providers and things, to people within the industry to show a show of appreciation of, you know, working records and helping build careers. And at the end of the day, help people make money. You know, we've been blessed here at Dominion Marketing and our affiliates. We have over 250 gold and platinum plaques that we're proud of. We've gotten everybody from, you know, the, the Death Rows to the No Limits to everybody that, that we've been a part of in one facet or another, whether we're working them at retail marketing or whether we're dealing with radio marketing. And again, we're one of many people that are involved with all these projects. There is no one successful project that one or two or three people do. There's hundreds of people in order to get this project These platinum plaques, there's hundreds of people involved in order to make these types of things happen. Records just don't sell millions of copies on one or two guys running around saying, hey, I broke that record. Um, what we've done here at Ready Where Play Pros, we— what we call, we're an incubator. We love what we do. I'm so proud of like a Gucci Mane, somebody that when he came to us, we had nobody ever heard of. We picked this record called I Saw Icy And nobody even knew who this kid was. And it's just a blessing to see a career just flourish from our initial efforts. Or when we took a record like the G-Spot Boys, Stanky Leg, I was like, man, is anybody going to feel this record? Is anything going to happen with this record? And at the time, our site was called lookingforairplay.com. And we were one of the first to do digital delivery of music when things were transitioning from CDs to MP3s. And we took that song and we serviced it out to DJs all over the country. Everybody was like, what is this? What is this? And we were the first to introduce that song out. And that's what it is for us. That's where our gratification comes in. It's being able to take those nobodies and turn them into somebodies. It's helping those independent labels that maybe probably would have never gotten a major label deal, but were able to achieve, if that's what their goal was, they were able to achieve a deal. Or they were able to sell records or just make a living from what it is that they love to do, their craft. And so that's, you know, that's a lot of what we do. All of these accolades and things are great. I mean, you know, you probably can't see the other wall, it's full of Billboard plaques from, you know, we've had almost 200 number one records in Billboard. Um, and again, that's years of hard work, you know, that's tons and tons of relationships. It's not just us. It's tons. I mean, at one point when there wasn't all these downloads and streams, there was the good brick-and-mortar retail store. At one point we had over 200 independent retail stores across the country, relationships that we built from the ground up in helping stores and helping keep their doors open and making sure they knew what all the hot music was that was moving in their market. I mean, these are things that you can never take away with technology. And things. Although technology's taken away a lot of those stores, but the reality is if it wasn't for those brick-and-mortar stores, a lot of these artists that we buy into today would not even have a career. There would be no Cash Money, there would be— it wouldn't have been no No Limit, there wouldn't have been no Young Jeezy, there would have been none of these guys if it wasn't for that. So we always tell clients, even nowadays in the millennials and this generation, everybody's— it's awesome It's all about the internet. It's all about the streaming. We say that's great, but don't forget the people. In the midst of all of that, it's still about the people. We say it's about the eyeballs, right? The eyeballs and the ears. You gotta have them. You gotta have them, Wendy.

Mike, what was your first plaque?

Well, my very first platinum plaque is actually— you probably can't see it, but it's also behind me. It's the Ghetto Boys' "Mind Playing Tricks on Me." It's probably— my most sentimental. Like I said, now, you know, we get them all the time and that's great. But you don't forget the first. Exactly. What do we always say, Wendy? You know, what we say now is, hey, I can't eat that, so hey, send me a check, right? You know, but the reality is, is that, you know, that ghetto boy's mind playing tricks on me. I mean, it changed my life. I have to honestly say I give a lot of credit to Rap-A-Lot. People don't understand how many doors that a company like that really opened. There wouldn't be a lot of companies, wouldn't even exist to this day, wouldn't even, they wouldn't even have the bravery to even step out in this industry if it wasn't for pioneering companies like Rap-A-Lot. And I learned so much because I was, I was only 17 years old at the time, Wendy Day, and I was very young in the business. But one of the things that I honestly say, Cliff Bludgett, Tamara Wall, you know, Lil Jay obviously, I mean, everybody that was involved with Rap-A-Lot, they embraced me. Here I was, a kid in high school, trying to get my feet wet more in the industry. You know, Rap-A-Lot was still working out of a house, then they moved into a little office in the bank building, and it was still growing, but they were local, they were here, they were something I had, it was accessible to. And I had a magazine that at the time it was called Concert Circuit. It was a fanzine that I had in the streets of Houston and was circulating throughout a lot of the schools and things. And I remember they gave me my first shot. You know, they said, hey, you know what? They had an artist called Prince Johnny C and Choice and the Baby Ghetto Boys, you know, all of these different artists that they were developing at the time. Convict, you know, 3-2, and I mean, all these different guys from way back in the day. People probably don't even know who I'm talking about. But anyway, this was before the success of the Ghetto Boys and Scarface. But, um, it was, it was very interesting because they took a liking to me and they say, hey, you know what, we're going to let you sit down with our artists, we're going to let you interview them, we're going to let you help develop them, you know, and we like what you're doing here in the city. And, and again, we're talking way back then. Rap-A-Lot's not the Rap-A-Lot you know now. Rap-A- A lot was a— was an up-and-coming label that nobody really knew, just like, just like a lot of these labels are now. And they were working the streets of Houston trying to get on like everybody else. And so I am extremely grateful to them that they opened a lot of doors through them. They had a relationship with Priority Records. You know, I was able to, you know, get into that line and relationship with Def Jam. I was able to get into that line. So a lot of things stemmed from that. And that's why I think, Wendy, a lot of people do is they forget where they came from, right? And in this business, and you can't, um, you know, I'm honored to be in a relationship with, with you and what we've created in our business relationship. Uh, you know, I remember meeting you 20 years ago, you know, and things, and seeing you at different music conferences and speaking on different panels and stuff like that. And little did I know that we would develop into the relationship that we have now and the level of business that we do together and stuff. And that's why I always stress the importance of relationships. The value, especially with people like us, Wendy Day, that do this full-time. What do we always say? What are we going to do, push grocery carts? You know, I mean, this is all our life. This is all we know to do. So we have to— yeah, we have to make this work. And so I think a big part of it is to humble yourself, is to understand that you can't forget where you come from. You can't forget, you know, and me and you joke about all the time, Wendy, there's a lot of artists that we've helped that we, we can't even get on the phone anymore. Anymore. I mean, as they say, it's what it is. And some guys, you know, you help, they get to what we call the mountaintop and they forget where they come from. It's what it is. It's nature. It's a part of life or whatever. But there are some good people in this industry too that say, you know what, man, if there's anything you need, call me anytime. And they never got too big for us or they never made too much money for us. And at the same time, there's the reverse of that. Me and you have seen a lot of careers go all the way to the top, and we've also seen them come all the way back down. And, uh, I was telling somebody the other day, I won't mention any names, but, um, you know, I've seen some people that have some plaques on the wall and that did very well catching the bus. And this is the reality of this industry that we're in. Tomorrow's not promised. So you guys that are watching this, take your career very seriously. And if you want people like Wendy, like myself and others in the industry to take you seriously, you have to make sure you're presenting yourself in a serious manner. You have to be willing to go the distance. You have to be willing to sacrifice. And I think that's the key thing, Wendy Day, that I know we're gonna be talking about radio here, but I think a lot of these other things that are coming out is just as valuable because it's what leads to the radio airplay, what leads to keeping the airplay. It's about dedication, perseverance, consistency. And I think that's where a lot of artists and a lot of independent labels have gone wrong, is they refuse to be consistent. They think, oh man, if my record doesn't break in 2 weeks, I'm done. They don't understand that you have to, what we call, lay with the record. You have to be able to continue to keep building, keep talking about it, creating a story. It's more— a book is more than just the first couple pages or the first chapter. You have to keep building it, and the bigger the book, the more chapters it's going to consist of. So that's what a lot of what we're talking about here today with radio. If you want to be successful, especially in radio, is you have to look at the big picture. You have to be willing to sacrifice. You may have to do shows for stations. You may have to get out there. Hey, right now there's Hurricane Harvey going on. The aftermath is ridiculous. These radio stations are looking for relief. They're looking for help. Hey, get out there and pass out stuff, help people and give back, but do it through the radio station. That's another way of building relationships. As radio begins to see that you're active in the community and that you're willing to help out and be a part of touching lives, maybe that programmer may not think very— a little bit more of you. They may not hesitate to say, you know what, on that next really good song that you have, saying, you know what, I've seen this kid all over the city, you know, I'm going to give it a shot.

And things.

So there's a lot of things can come out of sacrifice and putting others first. So I want to put that out there as well.

Thank you for mentioning that. So you've been really generous with your time today. I really appreciate you so much for this. How can folks get in touch with you?

Well, we're always available, of course, through website, uh, radioairplaypros.com, or Radio Airplay Professionals. Radioairplaypros.com. Uh, check us out. We, you know, we've got all our radio campaigns on there. We've got client lists, testimonials, and so forth. You can get a lot more familiar with who we are, what we've done. Um, for all we know, we may have— we may even work some of your, your friends' uh, songs and stuff as well. And that's what we've also discovered is that a lot of people didn't know we were involved. Uh, and we find it that sometimes people, they just don't say I think one of my clients said it best when he gave me a thank you in his linear notes in his CD. He said, "Mike Matthews, the best kept secret in the industry," and I'll never forget that because as much as you want to say, "Hey, referrals are real," is that we've also found that a lot of times when you're really effective, a lot of people tend to embrace you and keep you to yourself. So that's what we did with Ready, Wear, Play Pros is we said, "You know what? We're about the little guy." We're about incubating, we're about starting the records, we've mastered that. That's what we do here. You know, we can get you noticed, we can get you started, we can get you off the ground. And hey, if your goal is just to get your career launched, that's what we do here all day long. At that point, if you want to take it on your own, if you want to go sign a major label deal, obviously they're going to come in with their team and so forth and take it to that next level. We can assure you we can get you that first benchmark.

Awesome. Thank you, Mike. You've been awesome.

Thanks for having me, Wendy Day. Love you. All right.