Don Rose & A2IM Fight Corrupt Radio. Should Indie Community Care?
In a piece on Tripwire, long-time indie entrepreneur and head of the label trade group A2IM Don Rose describes how radio fueled his lifelong love affair with music, how far broadcasters have strayed from their audience and offers some possible solutions.
"…Radio is dominated by large chains and overall listenership is under pressure. Many stations have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, selling playlist adds and spins in return for "promotional consideration," writes Rose. "Commercial playlists have become subjugated to the major-label "priorities,"…some even sold the rights to "exclusive access" to their programming departments to individual gatekeepers who became funnels for these unholy practices. Real damage has come at the expense of independent record companies, local artists, and saddest of all, music fans."
"…The key components to enlightening the Radio landscape are broader access to the programming process, and relationships between labels and Radio which are transparent to the parties involved, including the public,"according to Rose and A2IM.
There is no question that the FCC must return more control of the airwaves to the people and level the playing field for indie music. But is A2IM and Rose’s aggressive focus on radio short-sighted in an era of increased media fragmentation and endless opportunities for direct contact with music lovers via the net, cell phones, etc. ?
Rose himself acknowledges that "many independents have given up on commercial radio altogether, and limit their activities to the niche music genres generally left behind by the majors…". Is 
concentrating on limitless and shifting niches of fan interest rather than chasing short term mega-prof ts such a bad thing? Most indie labels we’re founded by entrepreneurs like Rose who live and breath great music. Their singular goal is to help that music find an audience and perhaps to make a decent living doing it. Would indie lalbels like Rykodisc which Rose founded have survived much less thrived as it did if it had relied on commercial radio?
The internet and new technologies are changing the way that people create, promote, discover and distribute music. The new music industry agrees that radio needs an overhaul, but for the most part it doesn’t really care.
I see what you’re saying, but radio is still the best way to get a ton of album sales. Nothing matches it. You wrote that going for radio is “chasing short term mega-profits.” Yes, well so is hoping MP3 bloggers will latch onto your music. So is file-sharing.
Indies are going after short-term profits just like everybody else. They may not have to report to their shareholders, but they’re trying to make a buck, too.
Would it be best for indies to concentrate on other avenues, such as satellite radio, Internet radio, file-sharing, etc? Possibly, but they still want in on the terrestrial radio party.
Rose’s comments sure did make more sense pre-Spitzer settlements, though.
As it stands now, stations are less likely to play indies because they’ve got federal regulators looking over their shoulders.
Indies got what they wanted. Payola is over. But majors still have the promotion muscle that indies lack.
Their advantage is that most indies deal with music that falls outside of the narrow focus that is mainstream radio. They don’t depend on radio. They have the kind of artists who will be discovered through album reviews, touring, word of mouth. It’s easier to faithfully serve a niche that it is to shoot for platinum sales, especially in the Internet age.