One of the best sessions at Winter Music Conference 2006 was about what the future holds for dance music on the public airwaves, titled “Dance Music on the Radio?”
The star-studded panel of industry veterans, included Micheal Spinella of AOL Radio, Skyy - the Program Director at XM Radio’s BPM dance station, amongst other traditional media people. A number of salient points were made on what makes a great record and how to get dance music played on regular radio and how to sustain a record. Michelle Southern, one of the few female Program Directors in the country, made the point to really consider your audience. This is two-fold in that you should consider the audience of the busy Program Director, who would prefer to hear a variety of radio edits, over a longer composition of music. And, in the case of tradional radio, the station is geared to an audience segment and the music has to fit that segment.
Michelle and her sidekick, John McQueen have the advantage in the New Orleans market of having more than one station to try out new music. Skyy of XM Radio, a medium that is more liberal in the music that can be played, looks for emotion passion, and a great hook in a song or record. Carillo of KNRJ Radio looks to mix shows and clubs for direct feedback on what works and what dance songs may make the crossover to terrestrial radio. Spinella of AOL Music, which has numerous stations in the Dance and Electronica category, said that good production is essential and identifying a great record is about gut instict and research. What about promoting dance records to regular radio stations? The idea is to walk the fine line between persistence and being a pest. Lucas Prada and his promotion of the dance hit, And She Said, is a good example.
He has worked hard to build relationships with program directors, as well as taking the time to talk with the key people who can get his music played. Also, he made sure that the radio edit got produced. Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child was one of the conference attendees that took part in the Q and A, using the time to plug her new songs coming out in the dance category. Yet another attendee asked about the future of Regeaton, a latin-influced genre of dance. Last, a gentleman with an album that blends live guitar and a heavy metal sound with electronically composed music stood up to ask about its place on the radio. The panel concluded that dance music has a place on the radio, and Carillo emphasized that one of the most exciting things is that there is not just one formula for a dance song, there is room for variety and creativity.
Contributed by: Liz Dreisacker
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