I’m really wondering about this: do the radio stations have all their songs on CDs or do they have them on computers: if its on computers, how did they do it before computers, did they just have a huge collection of CDs (or vinyl discs) and they play it from that?
And also, do they have to pay for each song they play? if so, who are they paying to, how much and how is that enforced (is there a radio police or something?)
Depends on the station. Some just pop the appropriate CD into the player and choose the track. Some “rip” the CD tracks into either MP3 or Liquid Audio. Before computers, yes, the DJ was ceaselessly grabbing CDs or LPs off the racks and cueing them up.
Radio stations pay ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to receive rights to play music. The “blanket” rate for primarily-music (as opposed to news/talk) is a percentage of the station’s annual revenues and is billed monthly. The rate for 1996 through 2000 is 1.615% for stations that have annual gross revenue over $150,000 or a minimum of 1% of adjusted gross income. For stations that bill less than 150,000 there is a flat fee schedule -
under 50,000: 450
50,001 - 75,000: $800
75,001 - 100,000: $1,150
100,001 - 125,000: 1,450
125,001 - 150,000: $1,800
More info is here.
As for “radio cops,” I’m sure ASCAP has an enforcement program.
does ASCAP send this money back to the artists and record companies?
And do the radio stations buy their CDs at the same place as everyone else or do they have special suppliers so they can get them cheaper?
Sorry if it seems like I’m hijacking the thread but that info begs the question, “how do they divvy up the money to the artists?”
Do the stations submit playlists or does somebody monitor?
Spartydog yes, there is a ton of paperwork that is filled out so that artist that are being played get paid (and artist that aren’t being played do not). They do have to submit their playlists, and the performing rights organization (like ASCAP) will dole out a percentage to each artist that has been played accoding to how much they have been played.
That includes collecting for artist in other countries or territories that have treaties with the U.S. – for example, Canadian artist would get paid if they were on the radio in the U.S.
DrLiver radio stations can get their CDs from various sources. Usually they get special radio promo copies from the record label or from trackers (“trackers” are like agents that specialize in radio play). Once in awhile you’ll see one of the promo copies in record stores – they usually have “not for sale or resale” printed on the CD face and sometimes include additional material like interviews.
Sorry, I meant “once in awhile you see promo copies in USED record stores.” They aren’t supposed to be available to the public, but sometimes end up there. You won’t find them in regular recrods stores.
To clarify: ASCAP (or BMI) fees are divvied up among the songwriters. The record company doesn’t get any money.
The amount the artists get is determined by calculating how often their songs are played. Radio stations keep playlists that the send to ASCAP, which makes a determination of who gets what.
Before CDs, radio stations usually played tapes with current songs. Records were recorded onto tape cartridges (which looked like 8-track tapes). The cartridges automatically cued to the beginning of the song, so all you had to do was shove one into the player and press the “play” button. It also reduced scratching when you were playing the #1 hit every three hours.
Once a song went out of rotation, the stations would erase the “cart” and use the 45 or LP when they wanted to play it as an oldie. All DJs had turntables as well as cart machines.
In addition, some stations – underground, alternative, or college radio – played the LPs directly. Most radio stations had a closet filled with old LPs and 45s.
Aha could chime in. He gets a penny everytime they play one of his old songs. He was part of the Five Americans.
Back in the early 1990’s, right around the time that album sales began being counted using the Soundscan system, which fianlly gave an accurate accounting of exactly how many albums were being sold in stores, a digital key was placed on the first few seconds of every song that was played on the radio. When a song is played that info goes to a computer database which keeps track of how many spins a particular track gets and this goes itno the figuring of a songs chart position, as well as figuring out royalty rates.
Many if not all radio stations use promotional copies of albums.
Back in the day (1960s-early 70s) stations would be mailed new 45s and LPs by the record companies for free. It was part of the program director’s job to make sure the station kept in touch with the various companies (and there were a lot of them) to keep on thier mailing lists. There were services to which stations could subscribe that would guarantee to supply you with all the hits, but most small stations didn’t want to pay.
At the small stations where I worked, we got tons of 45s and some albums. That included vast quantities of 45s from small independent labels that rarely had a hit. We had boxes of these surplus 45s (sometimes they’d excitedly send us as many as five copies of the same 45) and we would give them away at remote broadcasts. Some we used for target practice.
That practice was cut way back in 1973 durin the gas shortage, since records were made with PVC, a petroleum derivative. Labels stopped automatically mailing free copies of every record to small and medium-sized stations.
These days, most independent stations subscribe to a service, which sends them weekly combination CDs of the latest songs, which are then ripped to MP3s for storage in a massive hard drive. There are many advantages to this in terms of not having to hunt through hundreds of CDs to find a particular cut and – from the ownership’s point of view – controlling the playlist and keeping jocks from slipping in unauthorize favorites.
Of course hundreds of stations are satellite-fed from a central location with music and general dj chatter, leaving the local outlet only to drop-in prerecorded tag lines that attempt to localize the out-of-town feed. In those cases, locals don’t have to worry about getting music to play; the feed does it for them. And so playlists tighten as station ownership consolidates into fewer and fewer hands, resulting and bland mediocrity and lowest-common-denominator music choices.
This provides fewer opportunities for new artists to begin by building a local fan base, expanding it to regional and then national as they get wider airplay. It also provides fewer opportunities for local dj talent to develop into the pros of tomorrow, but that’s for a separate – probably a Pit – thread.