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The Promotion Department’s primary focus is to secure radio play for the record label’s new releases. Radio is the most expensive part of major label budgets, but it’s traditionally the most effective way for a label to deliver its new singles to the consumer. You’ll work almost exclusively with a media director or program director of a radio station.
This is another position that relies heavily on cultivating strong relationships–if you want your client’s to get airplay, you’ll need to work with either an MD or a PD or both. In this course, you’ll learn to research which stations play the genre of music you’re promoting and how to get in touch with a program director (they develop the type of programming the station offers) and the media director (they choose the music that is played on the station).
You’ll also learn about the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the Communications Act of 1934, payola, and more about the relationship between radio stations and music labels. The promotion department works closely with other departments to get data that may help woo a program or media director.
Your assignment for this course is to mock-pitch a song to your mentor as if they were an MD or PD. You will learn different pitching techniques and how to communicate with media directions and program directors (in some cases, they may be the same person). Your second assignment will be to research a song of your choice and answer a series of questions, including peak performance, which label signed the band, how airplay affected sales, and more.