Radio Single’s and How They Get Chosen
How does a radio single get picked from a group of songs on a CD? Haven’t you ever wondered how the record labels pick the songs that represent and sell an album?
Warning: let’s get this out of the way real quick. All this is based on years of observation, nothing more. Speculation seems to make the best conversations, enjoy.
There seems to be a few rules that MOST bands/labels play by, those are the “basics”. Obviously, different genres have slightly different approaches depending on the crowd the band is being marketed towards. Otherwise, the confidence the label has for the band will cause the basics to be tweaked.
Best Songs Never Go First: Usually there is a consensus on which tracks stand out the most on a band’s album. Especially when a band gets signed to a major label and is being exposed for the first time, the best song never is the lead single. This applies to veteran bands as well. The lead single from a record is one which is just catchy, and good enough to get the band some spotlight time. Once people start to recognize the band, the second and usually strongest song is put out. Building a band up like this (multiple radio singles) gives them a better chance at staying in the public’s radar.
Track Order: Radio singles are usually easy to spot on a track listing as 75% of the time they lie within the first 4 tracks. My only guess as to why singles come from the front of the album is that it’s good to have something familiar sooner than later.
One Hit Wonders: There are exceptions to the basic rules. For example, if a label knows or has a feeling that a band is a one hit wonder then they start with the best song first and milk it for everything they can. Haven’t there been times when you feel like the same song is in every store, on every station and it lasts for awhile? That’s a hint that the artist will probably fade away once the song has run its course.
Anyone see a problem with signing bands that only have one good song? This is a digital age (so I say from my blog) and, as digital downloads from iTunes and other online stores become more popular, people don’t have to buy the whole CD anymore. They can simply buy their favorite song. The label then misses out on that extra cash from an entire album.
I guess this can be summed up with comparing albums to movies. If a movie trailer has all the funny jokes and leaves nothing for the actual movie the word gets out quick. You can’t hide bad movies. In the same way, you can’t hide a bad music album with one hit song.
August 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
good points. I was wondering if the band is big, can they get any leeway in suggesting the song– to their producer and then in turn to radio stations?
August 26th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I think sometimes that happens, sometimes though the band is not objective enough to clearly pick the bets song, maybe they have a bias for emotional reasons.