Internet Radio | Wendy Day Interviews Mike Matthews About Digital Radio

Hi guys, Wendy Day here. Thank you for tuning in today. I've got Mike Matthews from Radio Airplay Pros. Oh, that's a tongue twister. Mike, how are you?

I'm doing great, Wendy. How are you?

I'm doing good, thank you. I have a lot of energy today. Um, I drank too much caffeine, that's really what it is. So I brought Mike here today because I want him to educate me and you guys on internet radio. So Mike, would you give a little bit of background on who you are and how you got started with internet radio?

Okay, Wendy Day, I've been doing, you know, of course we all know internet radio is actually— a lot of people don't really know the root of it. It's actually existed for many years now. It's actually, I believe, close to about 15 years old. And yeah, most people don't understand that. A lot of people don't even know that's how, you know, that's how Mark Cuban became a billionaire. He sold— he owned Broadcast.com and sold it to Yahoo for $5 billion. A lot of people think Mark Cuban made his money from, you know, having the Mavericks basketball team and all this other stuff and investing in different businesses. He made his billion from internet radio.

That's impressive.

Internet radio, look it up. Broadcast.com, Mark Cuban and his partners, they sold it for $5 billion. Ooh, I wish I was that guy. Anyway, but I'm a late bloomer. See, that's what I'm saying. And that was way back in, what was that, 1999, I believe. Oh, wow. So yeah, internet radio is about 17 years old or so, 17, 18 years old. So it's not relatively new, but it's becoming new to the industry as we know it. So it's already been dubbed as like that next transition from what's happening now with millennials and things tuning into more internet radio, or digital radio as we call it, than so much the traditional FM terrestrial. So it's very interesting there. But, you know, the history of myself, I've been in the internet radio game since 2008. I started Dominion Global Radio Networks, and it was kind of like my way of saying, hey, you know what, if Radio One can do it, Clear Channel can do it, and so forth. Hey, you know what, I'm going to get in the broadcasting business too, and I'm going to see you know, how that goes and learn more about it. And so I started Dominion Global Radio Networks, and it was 5 internet radio stations. I didn't think anything of it. I didn't think anybody would care. I didn't think anybody would tune in. And it was just something I was tinkering with, to be honest with you. You know, of course, working a lot of records with the marketing company, I said, okay, give me an outlet to get, you know, music exposed. And, but what really got me intrigued by it was when I started looking at the backend analytics and, and I'm like, wait a minute, there's people listening to these stations all over the world, in Germany and Australia and Korea and Japan. And I'm like, this is incredible. And, uh, and again, here I am coming from a more of a terrestrial FM background, uh, and things, and new to the whole internet radio, digital radio world. And in 2008, I was mesmerized by it. I said, you know what, I gotta learn more. And so I started absorbing it like a sponge and, uh, and things. And, you know, of course having the FM terrestrial background and working records at FM radio, I said, hey, wait a minute, there might be something here. And as the industry began to start growing, and I saw over time throughout the years that more and more new music was starting to be discovered online, it wasn't necessarily being discovered from that commercial FM terrestrial radio that everybody knew anymore. It was like, wait a minute, social media was getting bigger, internet radio, digital radio was getting bigger, and I'm like Okay, you know what, this is something we kind of take more seriously. So I got with a team of other radio promoters and marketing guys, and I said, wait a minute, there's something here. And I was one of the first people to pioneer what's now called digital radio campaigns. And I started, I said, you know what, we can take the same business model that we use in breaking music and developing music at commercial FM, but we can go over here where there's less politics, where there's a lot bigger audience in a different way. You can reach a lot more territory. And we're gonna start doing digital radio campaigns and exposing, especially a lot of new and developing artists, what we call, we're the incubator here. So we say, you know what, what great way to do it, especially on a low budget. So you don't have to have the tens of thousands of dollars that you may have to have with commercial FM. We can develop internet campaigns, digital radio campaigns that are very affordable to the upstart label or the new and developing artists that may be fresh out of the studio, maybe green to the game, maybe don't have the contacts, not really sure, maybe scared to step out there and spend the thousands of dollars. So we always say, you know what, try the digital radio, see what's going on with the song first, let it do a little research and find out if you're getting some hits on social media, some getting some streams on your music, what's going on before you spend the tens of thousands at commercial FM. So That's really what made me get into it even more. Little did I know that the company was going to grow. We do more than 1,000 campaigns a year here now. Wow. And, you know, when we started, it was only a few here and there. And so it just goes to show you the times are changing. Digital radio is becoming more and more relevant in the industry. You know, I tell our clients now, I said, just look at what's going on. There's over 50 million cars now with internet radio in it. You know, my partner Ray just talked about the smart fridge. Yes, a lot of people don't have it yet and things. He was in the store and he said, wait a minute, there's a Samsung smart fridge that's playing internet radio, not terrestrial FM. And you know, so now it just causes us to really think that, you know what, the way music is consumed now is very different, Wendy Day, than 20 years ago. It's not like it used to be. Yes, there's still CDs passing out hand-to-hand, there's still things going, there's still flash drives, there's still emailing MP3s and e-blast companies and so forth, but music consumption overall has changed. Now you have technology, all these devices, you got the Amazon Echo, the whole Alexa thing. They're projecting that almost 50 to 60 million households will have that by the end of the year. That device has become so popular A lot of people don't know Apple Music, they're coming out with their own device, I believe, for the holidays. So what's happening now is it's about these devices, and what are they all streaming? Digital radio. So it's very, very interesting. But what furthermore interested me in dealing with it was that, you know, in doing these campaigns, in order for them to be successful, there had to be a way to also track it. So there was Digital Radio Tracker came into play, you know, in 2011. So it was a few years of me first, you know, trying to get the campaigns going and, and trying to understand and doing my own little tracking reports and trying to let people know, hey, your song is getting played here and there. But then when Digital Radio Tracker came around, it literally helped elevate the game because it made it so much easier now to work a lot more projects in volume because now we can say, hey, there's a third-party company tracking all of this airplay that's going on all over the world. We're able to see what's happening, be able to produce those DRT reports for our clients and let them know exactly what's going on with their song and what also could be happening virally because now you have a lot of artists leaving studios, they're putting songs up on their Facebook, their MP3s are moving around left and right now. It's almost impossible to not leak something out one way or another. But the key is you don't know what's going on with that song. So now with having some tracking, that's been a big blessing for us as well.

I love that you mentioned Digital Radio Tracker because that's, that's where I became a supporter of internet radio. I have not been a supporter of internet radio because as someone who works artists, I would devote dollars or time to bringing an artist to an internet radio station, and I didn't know if there were 10 people listening or 100,000 people listening. So it wasn't— I couldn't justify to my clients spending that money. So I was always very standoffish with internet radio. You know, I did interviews myself when they would call me to come down, but when it came to my clients, I was very nervous to, to put time or energy in that direction. And then when DRT came out, I was like, wow, I can now go to digitalradiotracker.com, I can pull up a report, and I can see exactly the stations, where they're located. I don't mean this to sound like a commercial, but I could see what the total audience is of internet radio. So now I have a device where— a tool where I can go to my clients and say, hey, this matters, we need to now put a budget behind these types of stations and this type of lane for our artists. Not to mention the fact that there's, there's less gatekeepers at internet radio than there is at terrestrial. Like, my artists have a shot, you know, as new artists at internet radio.

And, and that's what we love about it here. We, our basic campaigns, we're servicing a few hundred stations and, and things. And that's, that's what we love about it, is it's giving a new way to introduce artists. Like you said, the politics are not there as, as heavy as commercial FM, so a lot more artists are getting a shot. And what people don't understand, I always say it like this, you got to get to 100 before you get to 1,000 before you get to 10,000. It's about building your base. We all want the million fan base plus, but you got to still cross those benchmarks first. So internet radio is a great outlet. Digital radio, that's what it's become. And I think that's what— why we love DRT so much. Digital Radio Tracker has given a voice, we call it, to so many people that otherwise they wouldn't have gotten a voice. For years we've used BDS media base, and, you know, and they focus of course on the top 200 terrestrial FM markets and things. But we also know, like everything, technology, times are changing, you know. None of us really like change, obviously, but the reality is the internet is not going anywhere anytime soon. So we're really glad that DRT came along and gave these other, you know, other stations a voice that probably wouldn't have, unlike, had one. And what it's done for, like, me and you, Wendy Day, is now we're able to, like you said, we're able to justify the campaigns We're able to see what's going on. I think one unique thing that we did in utilizing DRT was we took a couple songs from a client and we just serviced it out to a few thousand internet stations. And we just wanted to see what the feedback was. You know, what song was maybe getting more airplay than the other, was getting more support. In other words, what do those, what do those streets say, as we call it? Because a lot of these internet stations are foreign. People don't know a lot of the mixers at major FM stations, they have digital stations. And so it's a great way that we found as a tool to just even introduce your music. You know, if you were trying to focus on commercial FM, it's a great way to introduce it to some of those mixers because they'll say, you know what, I can't play it on XYZ Hot in this city, but I can play it on my digital station, no problem. And let me see what my listeners think, let me get a little feedback on it. And the other beautiful thing about most digital radio stations is they're not commercial-driven, meaning they don't run commercials most of the day. So what that means is they have more airtime to give your music. So now, whereas power rotation might be 50, 60, 70 spins a week on a terrestrial FM station, a typical urban station, on internet or digital radio stations, power rotation can be 80 to 120 spins a week. So now you're able to get a lot more airtime. What do we, you know, what do we talk about, Wendy Day, earlier? It's about programming. So just think about it, even if that small digital station only has a couple hundred listeners but they're hearing your song 100 times a week, that does not mean you're not building real fans. Yeah, versus that 1 or 2 spins you may get on that FM station that, yes, they may have 10, 20, 30, 50,000 listeners in that market, but let's be real about it, how many records did you pick up and go and download and stream because you heard it one time on the FM station? So at the end of the day, it's still about programming. So as we're seeing the times change of the guard, and also at the same time, people just simply, Wendy Day, they don't have the money anymore. The resources just aren't out there to play with the big boys, as they say. So now you have these digital radio campaigns that we do, like through RadioAirPlayPros.com, that, you know, they're very inexpensive. I mean, you've got, you know, a startup campaign for $99. I mean, the average guy working at Burger King You know, Jack can afford to do that, you know, and at least get their song serviced out, at least get a few spins going, at least start to create some kind of fan base, you know. And then you can go all the way up to the Platinum Plus campaigns that are, that are $14.99, which is still very affordable as well. That, but what it does is it gives your record a legitimate shot, some legitimate exposure from a lot of different ways. And then like we said, we have DRT to track it, so we're able to get those clients those reports Every week we're able to service them and let them know, hey, these are where your songs are getting played, this is how many times per day, per week, this is the type of audience that you're reaching, you know, this is what's going on. What a lot of them are finding, Wendy, is that there's more digital radio stations. It's on DRT, they have this thing that shows you which is digital stations and which is commercial FM stations that they're monitoring. And a lot of people are starting to find out that, wait a minute, there's only 20 terrestrial commercial FM stations playing my song, but there may be 50 or 100 digital stations. So it starts giving you a different perspective of what's going on here. And I really truly believe— I'm a heavy advocate of it, Wendy. There's a lot of people in this industry that are gonna take a little bit more time to come around, and that's fine. That's like with anything. Now, 5 years ago, they weren't even talking about streaming, right? Now it's in everybody's vocabulary. Exactly. So that just goes to show you how fast things are moving. I recently heard they're talking about getting digital radio stations on the airplanes. You're talking hundreds of thousands of people traveling. They can't listen to Hot FM, right? They got to listen to digital radio because that's what's available on the planes. I mean, all of these things are happening technology-wise that honestly, if people aren't paying attention to this digital radio game, I'm saying you you better wake up. It's very real and it's very viable.

I've noticed how many people, like brands, are starting digital radio stations. Like Warren G has a digital radio station, um, Rough Riders have a digital radio station, uh, Rick Ross I think is starting a digital radio.

Maybach Radio. Exactly.

It's amazing to me, like, that whole growth just in the past maybe year and a half.

Exactly, that's what we've noticed as well. The trends are changing. One standout to us is Big Machine Radio. It's a major, major— Big Machine, exactly. Taylor Swift, Florida Georgia Line. I mean, they've got all the greats over there. And Thomas Rhett. I mean, all these major country artists that are just phenomenal network. And I When you see major labels creating digital radio stations and they're saying, look, we've got millions of people tuning in and listening, we can use that as a hub, as a vehicle to test new and developing songs before they get out there and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting at terrestrial FM radio and things. So we're really watching the trends. It's phenomenal what's going on. And I think, Wendy Day, the biggest thing that's helping is all of the devices that are coming out. I mean, technology is moving so fast. Like I said, I went and got a new car about 6 months ago, and I mean, I was looking for the CD player. I actually called the dealership. I said, where's my CD player at? They said, uh, they don't make cars with CD players anymore. You know, I'd have to— if I want a CD player, I have to go to an aftermarket place and get a CD player installed. And it just reminded me, it was a wake-up call, like, this is going nowhere.

I think that's been a couple years now too, that they've not made CD players.

Exactly, that's what's happening. It's growing so fast, you know, Wendy Day, it's growing so fast. And, and I think what's going on too with like the Amazon Alexa and these types of devices, they are perfecting the voice-activated aspect of it. When you walk in your house and say, hey, play Big Machine Radio, play Maybach music, you know, whatever it is, you know, these types of things, and it starts playing it like that, you know.

Um, when you said that, Mike, I had to look over at mine and make sure you didn't activate it.

Oh, that's right. I'm sorry, you got one in the room. Yeah, you know, and that's, and that's, that's what's so crazy about it, because that's what's gonna eventually happen in the cars. Because obviously, you know, you don't have time to be trying to go through all these internet stations in the car because there's thousands of them. You know, TuneIn is a very big hub that houses, you know, thousands and thousands of internet stations. That are streaming through all these devices now, including the refrigerators, through the airlines, in the cars, all these types of things that I think the more that grows is the more that people are going to be receptive of these digital radio campaigns and say, hey, wait a minute, you know what, before I spend $10,000, $20,000, let me spend $1,000 or $500 in a digital campaign. Let me see what's really going on my record. Does anybody care? Does it make sense? You know, if not, I didn't spend $20,000, $30,000 trying to figure that out, right? But if I'm getting the support that I need, if it's growing and so forth, then, you know, I can, I can go in. It's something to measure it by.

Well, what's the most effective campaign that I could utilize for a new artist?

Usually what we always recommend for new and developing artists, if you can go at least middle of the road, you know, at least spend $500, you know, $500 to the $1,500 range. What that does is it It's not give you at the bottom, but what it does, it also makes sure that you have enough what we call meat on the bone, where you're able to get at least enough airplay secured to where you can, you know, get some charting exposure, you know, get some things moving a little bit where you've got some something new to talk about in social media or PR through your press releases, stuff like that. I think that's very, very important, especially with new and developing artists. You know, if you can't even invest at least $500 in your career, I mean, come on. I mean What makes you think anybody else is going to, right? You know, how can you expect a major label to come and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars and you won't even invest $500 or $1,000? So it's a great test marketing tool. I'm not saying that it breaks records. I'm not saying that you've got millions of downloads and streams are going to come from it. Sure, every record is measured differently. Everybody— we've seen— I've seen both spectrums, Wendy. I've done the same campaign for different records that somebody has gotten no downloads and no streams and no social media activity, and then I've seen others get thousands of downloads and streams from doing a digital radio campaign. They say they swear by it. I've even had some clients say they don't even want to do an FM terrestrial campaign. All they do is digital campaigns, and their strategy is to do more of it because obviously it's less expensive. So they say, hey, look, we can release a single every 8 weeks and we can continue to keep building our fan base through the digital radio side. And what a lot of them are doing is they're actually structuring their online marketing and they're making these digital radio campaigns a part of it. So they say while they work their social media, while they work the blogs, while they work all their, their e-blasts and all the things that they're doing, they're adding now digital radio campaigns to it. And they're saying now they have what we talked about before, the pizza thing. It's a complete pie. They got all the slices now working from the digital, the internet side, and they're saying, "You know what? What more effective way to do it but by adding digital radio campaigns?" Now they're able to get more mileage because they're able to see the impact. It's feeding social media, social media is feeding it. Because this is something a lot of people don't know, is a lot of the digital radio stations now, they have that software where every time your song is played, it sends out a tweet. And so it goes through, and now what's happening is you have people retweeting that, oh, this song is being played over here, over here. So now you're actually finding out in real time, hey, my song is being played right now on XYZ station, and you're able to then retweet it out to your followers and let them know. And then it's becoming a vicious cycle where now it's going viral, where people are now tuning into that station that maybe wasn't tuning into it before. And you have also, you have a lot of other search engine optimization, you have a lot of the things that's coming from it that's saying, wait a minute, these digital radio campaigns are becoming a lot more valuable. And I'm not saying that to say the prices are gonna go up on it, but you never know. The reality is, is that that's the cycle of life. As things become in more demand, as more technologies developed around it, as you're making a greater and greater impact and that audience is growing, now again, like everything in life, it starts getting oversaturated. So now, you know, now that becomes kind of like the commercial FM. There's only so many slots, you know, they can't play every record that comes to them every week. It's impossible. There's just not enough airtime. So, and it's not about whether a record is good or not. So it's happening already with digital radio that these guys are starting to get flooded because like we talked about earlier, it's a DIY society. So now you have a lot of people saying, you know what, hey, I can go and service XYZ radio station myself, right? On the digital radio side. And with having Digital Radio Tracker, they go and they get their own reports and they're able to track their own efforts. So it is yet still growing in that way, but it's that simplified where really you can even do it yourself, or you can hire companies like us that already have a lot of relationships that are able to jumpstart that airplay for you, even at a digital radio level.

Perfect.

Okay, cool, cool. Wow, I know it's a lot.

It is a lot because it's just, it's, you know, the music industry is constantly changing. And it's funny because you were making jokes about change, but I'm one of those weirdos that actually loves change. I get burned out by doing things the same way over and over and over again. And one of my complaints about the urban music industry is that everybody jumps on everybody else's bandwagon. So if something is working, everybody jumps on it, you know. Um, one person wraps a van, we all wrap vans. And what happens is there's a din, there's a, there's a level here that we have to break out of in order to stand out. And the great thing about digital radio to me and for my clients is it's an easy way to break out where there's not already this many people there, we can stand out relatively easily, you know.

It—

and to me, that it's great for, for urban music.

Exactly. And that's one of the things that we're falling in love with it, you know, with the, the DRT charts and stuff like that going all throughout the industry. Um, one of the things that was interesting is one of my clients told me they got a call from Sony, and they asked them, they said, how did you hear about us? You know, we don't, you know, we didn't know anybody at Sony to send our music to them or whatever. And the guy, you know, the A&R guy at Sony, he called them and said, "We saw your song on the DRT charts." And so it was interesting because it let us know that our work is being noticed, right, on things by these gatekeepers and things. And I said, you know what, I told the client, said, "Now is not the time to stop, right? You know, let's go and see if we can get some more digital stations on it. Let's see if we can build it up and get it higher on the charts and things." let's go and cross-promote. You know, if people are paying attention to these DRT charts, post them on social media, share them with your friends and your followers and things, because you never know who's watching. That's why I brought that up. You never know what they're looking at. They may be looking at the charts to see what, you know, the Adeles, the DJ Khaleds, the Justin Biebers are doing, and at the same time they say, hey, who's this? I never heard of this guy. Let me check this out. And then they may go and pull a DRT report and see, you know, 'Hey, what's going on with this? This is something maybe we need to pay attention to.' Or I love what you always say, Wendy, is you say, you know what, they discovered you from one body of work, but then they want to go and explore your entire body. And, and so now that one single that you were tinkering with on a digital radio campaign has now opened you up to a whole nother world that you didn't even, you didn't even plan on it. Now you've got more SoundCloud streams, you've got more streams on Spotify, you've got more social media activity. Because now you're working it. And that's what we love about it, is that it's something tangible that we can work with our clients without spending a million dollars, you know, and we can work every facet of it to really see what's going on. And, and yes, I can attest to it. I've seen some, some commercial FM, some of those DJs like we talked about that have those digital stations, and they say, man, I love this record, this record's hot on my digital station., and all of a sudden it starts getting some mix show spins on the terrestrial FM. It's not impossible. What we've learned with these digital radio campaigns, it's nothing is impossible where it can lead to. One of our, our other clients just recently got a deal with Akon, and what was interesting about it was Akon was impressed with the DRT report. All he had was, was some digital radio. He didn't have any commercial of him. He didn't have anything else going on. And but what made it interesting about it was Akon said he, he looked at everything and he saw that the kid was working. That's a key that people miss. He wasn't sitting around and waiting, oh, I want to wait to get signed by XYZ or whatever, just because he knew Akon. He said, you know what, I'm going to get out here and I'm going to get busy with something. I'm going to show people that I'm serious about my career. And that's what it's about, Wendy. It's about having that character, that integrity, you know, that People aren't just signing talent anymore. Now they want to know who is this person. Are they gonna— are they on their best behavior just to get signed and then all of a sudden there's some weirdo or some freak and they're gonna do all kinds of stuff? You don't know. So that's what's also we find happening in the industry that's very interesting is that people want to know who they're doing business with. Not everybody's walked— like me and you've walked together, Wendy, for 20 years so we know a little bit more about each other. Through relationship. But the average person, they don't know. So think about it realistically, those that are watching this. If you're trying to get signed by a major label, or even co-signed by a, you know, a Rick Ross, Chris Brown, a Lil Wayne, or whoever, whatever you're trying to do, you have to really think about it. People are not gonna put one, their trust and credibility on the line, or, and/or especially their money on the line, and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in building your career if you're not to be taken seriously, if you don't have the character that they're looking for and things. It's very interesting. I don't know, Wendy, if you've been watching that show Signed on VH1.

I haven't, but I've heard a lot about it.

You've heard about it? Yeah, with the moguls, with, you know, with Rick Ross and Dream and Lenny S. and stuff from, you know, from Def Jam days and stuff. Now you're doing the Roc Nation stuff. It's very interesting because I think what a lot of people are watching that show What they're getting so caught up in is the talent, man. Oh man, this kid's got hella flow. And what they find is, and what they're starting to notice as the season is ending, is that the artists that they're getting rid of actually are some very talented guys. They can write, they've got killer flow, their hustle, but they're— exactly, there you go. That's what they're looking at. They're looking at other things. That's why I brought it up, is that they're saying, you know what, hey, you're cool and all, your flow is good, you can rap, I know you got potential, But it's becoming more than just about the talent. Exactly. They want to know where's their grind at? What are they doing? Are they just sitting around waiting to get in the booth? Are they writing songs all day? How are you taking your craft seriously? And that's really what the industry is investing in now, is they're investing in the character and integrity of that artist even more so because, and I'll say it publicly, the industry knows they can go buy hit records. They know that they can go get the hottest producers to work with you. Go get the best writer.

Easiest thing to find in this industry.

Exactly. But, but the character, they can't buy that. They can't make that. So, you know, if you're going to be hard to work with—

exactly.

If you're going to be hard to work with, if you're not going to do your part, if you want to sit back and be king on the throne, they'll tell you in a heartbeat, man, there's the door. Like, fuck off. So it's— yeah, it's just crazy in this industry. So You know, a lot of what we're seeing just in just current TV shows, they're showing that it's not just about the talent anymore. So all you guys that are watching this, you may not really understand, like, what is Wendy and Mike constantly talking about all this other stuff about, and not just about radio or this or that or how to get played? Is that these things are very important to pay attention to. You've got to make sure that you're walking with character and integrity and that people take you seriously. I really believe it's that in the beginning of the day, and, and then it's about the talent, the record at the end of the day. So when they get through that, they say, hey, does he have talent too? Does he have a hit record? What's going on here? And then they say, this is somebody I want to get involved with, this is somebody I want to put my brand on, this is somebody I want to co-sign, this is somebody that I want to put my hard-earned dollars behind. And I think if your viewers, Wendy Day, can really grasp that, I think we'll have more testimonies. Me and you, we'll have more people writing us texting us saying, hey, look, man, you know what? I heard all this other stuff everybody else is talking about, but Wendy Day, you've changed my life with these videos. The things that you've talked about— yeah, there you go. You've created an atmosphere that's moving people through the industry that we love in a whole different way, and that's where our gratitude comes in. It's not about these plaques on the wall behind me. It's about the satisfaction that we get of knowing that we've changed lives. Of knowing that we made a difference in that, in that up-and-coming, that next superstar that we don't know. It could have been just one thing we said in this video today that says, hey, you know what, I'm gonna sit back, I'm gonna meditate on these words, and I'm gonna change my game plan. I'm gonna step my game up. You know, there's— and that's what a lot of it is about. It's about making sure that you have a plan. You know, I always tell people things like, you know, We talk about things like POOR. People don't understand what a POOR mentality is about or being poor is about. People always associate it with money. POOR stands for Passing Over Opportunities Repeatedly. And that's probably one of the biggest mistakes that I've seen a lot of independent artists and independent labels make, is they pass over opportunities repeatedly. They don't even understand a blessing when it's right in front of their face. What's really going on? They're so focused a lot of time, what I call tunnel vision, on, you know, hey, I got to do this to get rich, instead of saying let me do the things that avoid me from being poor, having that poor mindset, and let me go into this thing and say, you know what, I may not have the money in my pocket, but I have the tools that can make me successful if I'm willing to build the right team and I'm willing to do the work. And so that's what we're about here at ReadyWherePlayPros.com. We're about doing the work. We believe everything else will sort it out. We don't have a crystal ball. We don't know where the next hit record's coming from. We don't know who the next Eminem is going to be, the next Jay-Z is going to be, etc. But we'd love to be a part of the project, and that's how we look at things. We treat all of our clients equal here. We don't care if you've got the $100 budget or the, the $100 million budget.

It's—

for us, it's about the integrity of the work. It's about making sure that every record we work has a legitimate shot. That's all we can promise you is once you've gotten that shot, if it doesn't connect with the people, if it doesn't research, then we didn't have us one. But at least we call— we live to play another day. We grab another record and we keep building until we get where we're trying to go. At least those that are serious, because we all know there's a lot of artists that that one record doesn't work for them, they're out, right? And they're done. And they say, hey— and then they wonder why people didn't take them seriously in this business. It's a constant grind. You cannot be afraid of it. You know, and just think about it. I tell people all the time, I say, you know what, every successful artist that I've ever known, Wendy, it didn't happen for them in the one day. It didn't happen for them in the first year. Most of these guys that we look up to that have sold the millions of records, people didn't know them like me and you've known a lot of these guys when they were 10 years in the streets grinding before they got discovered, as they say. You know, there's a lot of people, they say, oh, this is their first record. I know you laugh about it too, Wendy, It's like, that wasn't their first record. You know, the records they had before that, that was the first record you heard of, or the first record that was played on the radio.

Eminem is a 5-year overnight success.

Exactly. And that's, and that's what this, that's what this whole game is about. And that, and one of the things that we love about digital radio too, Wendy Day, is that it's given everyone an outlet. Now everyone can get a shot. It's leveled the playing field out here. So it's no longer about, well, we got to go through this gatekeeper, that gatekeeper only, and doors are being slammed in your face. Now the playing field is starting to get a little bit more level. That's why you have all these DIY conferences popping up and different things, is everyone's saying, you know what, now the average musician, band, artist, singer, rapper can do it themselves, can at least get a jump start. I love it. I don't know about you, Wendy Day, I love it when my phone rings and or I get an email from a client that's already got a buzz going, it's already got some things moving a little bit, they just need to connect the dots and then people like us can come in and say, okay, you know what, the foundation is there, now let's begin to mold it. Let's go ahead and build the house, as they say. That's beautiful, but then we've also dealt with clients that have come to us and we call it from the ground up. Me and you got to get in there and help pour the foundation. We got to dig the trenches out. We got to figure everything out from A to Z to get it rolling. So these digital radio campaigns have definitely done that, have leveled the playing field, have opened a lot of doors, have helped people create a lot of new fans that they would not have. I think one of the best things about it, Wendy Day, is it's global. It's global. We got to keep driving that. Now we are in a global music industry. We can no longer think Atlanta. We can no longer think Decatur. We can no longer think Buckhead. It's not about just those sets, those little areas and things, those, the Comptons of the world. It's not about that. Now we live in a global music society. Now, now, just like we know it's more single-driven than albums. So, you know, you have a song that's being released, but let's be real about it. I tell, I challenge my clients. I said, look at the analytics. Are all your streams coming from Atlanta? Are all your streams coming from Miami? What they're finding when they really look at this stuff, is just saying, wait a minute, it's coming from China, from Germany, from Australia, from London, New Zealand. I mean, it's incredible. And you know what I tell them, Wendy? Why are we spending $1 million in Atlanta? That makes no sense to me when we can do so many other things to connect these dots. And so that's one of the things that we really love about the digital radio campaigns is it's allowing us to be able to support and see, because our campaigns?

How long do you work a record at digital radio?

The average campaign, you know, is, is, works just like terrestrial radio. It's 4-week blocks or 8-week blocks typically. Some clients want to go beyond 8 weeks. Typically we don't really recommend it, Wendy. Let me tell you why. It's because internet radio, much like terrestrial FM, you don't need to keep beating these guys up. Either they're going to play your song and support you or they're not. So to keep emailing them your MP3, hey, will you play me, play me, that kind of thing, now it's borderline harassment. So now it starts getting to the point where, you know what I'm saying, they don't— they're not feeling it, you know. Now if anything, you start irritating DJs. You're really not gonna complain. A lot of them have a long reach. They got a lot of friends. They start saying, you know what, is this guy bugging you about this record all the time? Let it go. So yeah, so we've learned that from a lot of the DJs we've gotten feedback from. They say, look, Mike, just send it one time. We got it. And let us check it out. Give us a chance to breathe. Let us see what's going on. So we feel that the 8 weeks of pushing is good. Doesn't mean that more stations won't play it beyond that or whatever, but at least during the course of those 8 weeks, you're able to analyze your digital radio tracker report. You're able to see what's going on with the song and be able to make some executive decisions back at home base.

Are they looking at things other than the song itself? Like, are they looking— like, I know with terrestrial radio, they're looking looking at, you know, what is the video doing, what's the reach on Twitter and Instagram. Is it the same with digital radio?

And that's a great question, Wendy. You know, one of the things that we've discovered in the thousand-plus campaigns we do every year here is that digital radio is still about the music. I know that's crazy. Nobody said that in years. Digital radio, we found, is still about the music.

Nice.

Everything else in the industry we know has changed, right? Digital radio, what we found—

Wendy Day loves the music.

Exactly. That these are really DJs and former program directors at terrestrial FM that were tired of a lot of the politics, and they went and got and started doing a digital station, and they said, look, um, we're gonna go in here and we're gonna try to bring it back to the music. So what a lot of these guys are doing, they don't care about you having a well-written bio. They don't care that you've got 50,000 followers on social media. And you get— a lot of them don't even have the time to do all that kind of research because they're club DJs, they're working at stations, they're doing other things. So what a lot of them are doing is they're using their digital radio stations as an incubator, is they're using it as a test market to see that it actually gives them that gratification again, that Remember what the true definition of a DJ is? We break records. But of course, that hasn't been said in years. Um, is that it gives them that sense that they can play a role in breaking new music and helping with that new music discovery. Now, what we've started witnessing, Wendy Day, that's incredible, is that even major labels now with these major artists, they're leaking music out to digital radio stations first. They're not just so quick, gung-ho, to go commercial FM anymore. They're saying, wait a minute, let me make sure this is the right single before we go in and put this big, big budget behind. Let me see if anybody cares, as we say in this business. And so that's what people are finding about digital radio, because there's no politics like that in most of the cases. What they're doing is, is that they're saying, hey, some stations— and it's perfectly legal— they say, hey, you know, will you sponsor us? Because digital radio stations fall under different laws than terrestrial FM, so it's global. It can't be regulated the same way. So don't look at it as a payo, look at It's not payola. There's no such thing as payola in digital radio. So you have a lot of digital radio stations, they want support. You know, will you advertise with them? Will you support their station? And a lot of them have donate buttons. These are things that you look out for, that they'll say, you know, hey, we're gonna support who supports us kind of a thing. It's a mutual thing. And so you even have that happening now in the digital radio world where people are saying, you know what, we're going to give this good music a shot. And we're gonna play it for a few weeks and we're gonna see. There's a lot of digital radio, so you'd be surprised. They got technology now. They got the whole thumbs up, thumbs down thing going on, right?

I know Live 365 was big with that, so that somebody can either download a song or add it to their Spotify list.

Exactly. And they can look at all those analytics and be able to see, you know what, am I playing something just like a major commercial FM station? So they have their own research. These stations are looking at DRT reports too. And they're seeing, you know what, hey, how is their programming going? Do they need to up the spins on this song or that song? You know, based upon the feedback that they're getting. So a lot of these digital radio stations, Wendy, it's very interesting, they're operating very much like a regular terrestrial FM station already. Some of them even have studios where they're bringing people in and doing live interviews. I mean, you would think you're in Radio 1. I mean, it's crazy. And they're taking this, their craft, very seriously because they're pioneering something. They know that it's not going anywhere. So they say, you know what, we're gonna build that next 102 jams or whatever it may be. They're just doing it at a global level. And a lot of these internet stations, man, you wouldn't believe it. There's a station we work with in New York, Wendy Day, I'm not exactly— got 15,000 listeners a week on a consistent basis. That's incredible numbers. That's numbers you can't deny. I mean, you know, and what's starting to happen is, I mean, It's global, but they're also cutting into some of that market share at Hot 97s and Power 105s of the world too. There's— wait a minute, what's going on here? I'm sure you might have heard recently in the news, Wendy Day, there was a, um, a, a station in Tampa, Florida that, um, they wind up being number 1 on Nielsen's PPM. Really? Uh, and they couldn't believe it. There was a man— terrestrial FM stations, like the top 40 there was going crazy, like what in the world is going on, right? And what it was, was it was a— I believe it was a Hispanic, you know, internet digital station that's got all these listeners, and they were doing their thing and they couldn't believe it. How in the world is this thing popping up on a PPM meter? People are tuning in and they're tuning the terrestrial FM station off, and it caused a whole big shake-up in the industry because the reality is, Wendy, is This is where things are going, right? And they can't— they can't stop the technology. The millennials are saying, you know what, we want to listen to our devices. It's no longer— even when they go to work, they don't have the little stereo on their desk no more. There's no signal in a lot of these. It's just faster for them to be online and just go and let me stream some music. That's why playlists have grown so big. That's what it's about now. Music consumption and music discovery has changed. And I think a big part of that change is digital radio, Wendy, what we're talking about today. If you're not aware about what digital radio is, go to RadioAirPlayPros.com, look at the digital radio campaigns, get a better understanding, do your homework, do your due diligence, find out more about it, learn about it, check out Digital Radio Tracker, look at the stations that are being monitored, find out, you know, maybe you have some relationships with some of those stations already. And so you can get those DRT reports and you can see what's going on. You can be able to what we call tell your story. You can use those DRT reports to send to label A&Rs, to send to your publicist, to send to your managers, your lawyers, all these different people that work for you within the industry to be able to tell the story of what's going on. That information is very viable. So that's what these digital radio campaigns are doing. I think it's really changing the landscape. I'll add this one more thought, Wendy Day. We heard something very, very interesting, that a lot of major record labels are setting up what they call digital divisions. There was one major label that reached out to us, I won't mention any names and keeping their privacy, but they said they shut down a whole department, that they're creating a whole digital radio department where they're going to focus on ends of it, social media as well as digital radio. And, and it is very, very interesting. It's just signs of the times that are changing that, you know, even the majors are starting to look at this. They can't avoid it anymore. You know, it's one of those things where if you can't beat them, join them, right? You know, so it's something to look at in a whole different light. And we tell a lot of people, if you're not in it now, you better get in it while it's still at the ground level, while it's still affordable. Start building some relationships, start getting your records moving, and build your fan base even stronger than it already is. And at the end of the day, it's about the numbers. The numbers don't lie.

Awesome, Mike, this has been amazing. Thank you so much. And I'm gonna put your link below this video. I'm also gonna put the link to soundexchange.com because that's how artists get paid. For the spins that they receive on digital radio, on internet radio. Mike, you've been amazing. Thank you so much.

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Wendy, and I hope your listeners continue to be blessed by these videos and you continue to keep doing what you're doing. And we're going to give you all the support in the world here at RadioAirPlay.com.

Thank you so much. Thanks again.