Radio Programmers Newsletter: January 3, 2008
AirPlay Direct is pleased to announce our sponsor for the January edition of our Radio Programmers Newsletter, BigFatCat PR. BigFatCat PR is a national PR & Artist Management company that caters to the music industry.
AirPlay Direct’s digital delivery services are always free to our members thanks to wonderful sponsors like BigFatCat PR. If you are an Indie artist, record label or an entertainment services firm and are looking for a reputable PR / Media / Management firm, we highly recommend BigFatCat PR.
The foundation of BigFatCat Management and Public Relations www.bigfatcat.net is passion. We exist because music inspires us, makes us take mouth-wide-open breaths of life and accompanies our every exuberant, waking moment. Of all the things in this world, it is music that, to me, inspires the most passion. It’s borne out of inspiration, creativity, emotion, desire; it arouses the same things in those who listen—I mean really listen, letting the words and melodies wash over them, soaking into every pore. I believe such passionate endeavors deserve to be marketed with equal fervor.
BigFatCat PR is offering a complimentary 15-point consultation for all interested AirPlay Direct members. For artists that BigFatCat PR feels they can help… they are also offering an AirPlay Direct member discount of 20%. To learn more please contact Laura at laura@bigfatcat.net .
Throughout the months of January and February, AirPlay Direct will be running our FREE to enter “All Things Digital AAA / Alt. Rock” artist contest. The Grand Prize package will include:
• A recording studio package for a master quality EP (5 songs) from Offensive Tie Music Group ($10,260 value)
• An 8 week national College radio promotion campaign from the Planetary Group ($3,000 value)
• A 12 week national PR / Media campaign from BigFatCat PR ($2,100 value)
• A “featured” live performance slot at PLAY:STL Music Festival & Conference (value… priceless)
• A 3 month “box ad” on www.playbackstl.com ($500 value)
• A “Featured Artist” advertising / promotion package from AirPlay Direct (a $1,500 value).
This contest is FREE TO ENTER and very simple. The only three requirements to enter are that you must be an AirPlay Direct artist / label member (free to join), your music must fall into the AAA/Alt. Rock genre and you must submit your AirPlay Direct DPK to office@airplaydirect.com prior to the official entry deadline of February 22nd. Whether you are an indie artist or a well established record label with a roster, pick your best songs, you can submit from 1 to 3 tracks per artist. Please make sure to note that you are submitting for the AAA/Alt. Rock artist contest. Deadline for submissions is February 22nd. The winner will be announced and “Featured” in the March Radio Programmers Newsletter, as well as in a company press release to all media outlets.
A little about the Offensive Tie Music Group:
Offensive Tie Music Group www.offensivetie.com is a full service artist development company made up of production and publishing businesses as well as a state-of-the-art recording and sound design studio. Our goal is to help each artist bring out their greatest work by highlighting their strengths and complementing their abilities. We strive to maintain artistic integrity while helping build sustainable music careers for our clients. Each artist can pick and choose which services best suit their needs: something as intensive as co-writing a project from inception through release, or anything as laissez-faire as having us press the record button. Most recently, Offensive Tie was joined by Rotary Records, a recording studio and small record label in Western Massachusetts. Rotary Records just completed construction on a new recording space filling 3,500 square feet in a restored 200 year old church, complete with a five room apartment available on the first floor for clients who travel.
The management/production team at Offensive Tie has over 25 years in combined experience in the music industry. We are musicians ourselves who have studied with Elliot Scheiner (REM, Foo Fighters), George Massenburg (Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Journey), Leanne Ungar (Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen), Mark Wessel (Yo-Yo Ma, O-Positive), Richard Evans (Tower of Power, Natalie Cole), Daniel Moretti (Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennet) and Mirek Kocandrle (Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, The Drifters).
A little about the the Planetary Group:
The Planetary Group www.planetarygroup.com is an artist development firm based out of Boston, with satellite offices located in New York and Los Angeles. The radio department at Planetary focuses on getting their clients airplay on College, Triple A, and Specialty Radio. Planetary also helps their clients by setting up in studio performances and interviews with radio stations while our clients are on tour. The company also has a publicity department that caters to helping artists gain exposure through national and regional press campaigns. This involves doing campaigns for record releases, national and local tours, as well as local CD release parties. Publicity mainly focuses on print and online media, but also utilizes other television and radio outlets to help maximize exposure. Planetary also has a new media department that
involves utilizing the internet to further promote and publicize their clients.
Recent clients include Ween, Interpol, Cloud Cult, Bloc Party, The Apples in Stereo, the Polyphonic Spree, Kings of Leon, Jen Lekman, Dean & Britta, Robbers on High Street, Bayside, Albert Hammond Jr., and Peter, Bjorn & John.
A little about BigFatCat PR:
The foundation of BigFatCat Management and Public Relations www.bigfatcat.net is passion. We exist because music inspires us, makes us take mouth-wide-open breaths of life and accompanies our every exuberant, waking moment. Of all the things in this world, it is music that, to me, inspires the most passion. It’s borne out of inspiration, creativity, emotion, desire; it arouses the same things in those who listen—I mean really listen, letting the words and melodies wash over them, soaking into every pore. I believe such passionate endeavors deserve to be marketed with equal fervor.
To me, it’s all about turning friends new and old on to music that can change their life—color their mood, inspire their art, awaken their creativity. It’s about making connections, making things happen, making a difference. It’s about working with bands and artists I believe in, and then sharing that belief and passion with others.
A little about PLAY:stl :
The second annual PLAY:stl Music Festival & Conference www.playstlfest.com will take place September 18-20, 2008, once again centered on the Delmar Loop in St. Louis , Missouri . The music festival will feature 90 acts over three days at venues including Blueberry Hill (both the Duck and Elvis Rooms), Cicero ’s, Vintage Vinyl, and more. The conference portion is geared toward musician education and networking, with panels featuring industry professionals discussing such topics as recording & production, booking & touring, promotion & publicity, and the business of music. Artist submissions will open via AirPlay Direct in early 2008.
A little about PLAYBACK:stl :
Founded in 2002, PLAYBACK:stl www.playbackstl.com was in print four and a half years before going web-only in late 2006. A venture of passion, PLAYBACK:stl has long striven to illuminate talented and deserving artists. With music and entertainment coverage including comics, film, books, art and more, the site is an outlet of discovery and influence. More than just a collection of words, PLAYBACK:stl has long been involved in booking shows and hosting events, drawing attention to the music community and independent artists.
A little about AirPlay Direct:
AirPlay Direct www.AirPlayDirect.com is a new revolutionary, efficient and very cost effective way to securely deliver your “broadcast-quality” music and electronic press kits to radio programmers and music industry professionals around the world.
AirPlay Direct is an easy to use digital file transfer system that was developed to streamline radio/artist promotion activities for today’s music industry. AirPlay Direct’s FREE digital services replace the unnecessary time and expense of putting together and sending out costly traditional artist packages and press kits via snail mail.
Airplay Direct’s Featured Radio Programmer For January
Listen to and download Big Kev’s “broadcast-quality” radio shows at http://www.airplaydirect.com/BigKev
Well known and respected in the Americana music field, Kevin “Big Kev” Ploghoft has been in the radio industry for over 20 years and is currently the Talent Coordinator and Content Consultant for WXLV-Roots 90.3 in Schnecksville, Pa., and also serves as Music Director for Regional Roots Radio.
Big Kev is the former Music Director of WDVR-FM in Segeantsville, NJ (2002-2007) and is the Cocreator, Co-producer and host of the Living Room Series radio program that airs on numerous stations. The Living Room Series is Co-Produced by the Artist Development Coop. Big Kev’s Living Room Series is now available exclusively on AirPlay Direct as a “broadcast-quality” download for syndicated programming on your station.
Airplay Direct’s Featured Artists For January
Listen to and download “broadcast-quality” tracks at http://www.airplaydirect.com/MerleHaggard
In a career spanning more than 40 years, country music legend MERLE HAGGARD has found a new direction to explore with THE BLUEGRASS SESSIONS, in stores. HAGGARD’s first-ever foray into bluegrass - to be released by bluegrass luminary Del McCoury’s McCoury Music label - features a duet with Alison Krauss on the HAGGARD-penned classic “Mama’s Hungry Eyes.” Merle’s first single from the record “Wouldn’t That Be Something” is currently available to radio on AirPlay Direct.
Joined by a savvy cast of musicians (including Marty Stuart on guitar and mandolin), HAGGARD recorded THE BLUEGRASS SESSIONS at Ricky Skaggs’s Tennessee studio in two days of intimate “living room style” sessions, as Stuart explains in the disc’s liner notes. “Each take became a performance. Merle’s singing was totally inspired,” Stuart writes. “In fact, he got to the point where he didn’t even go into the control room to listen to playbacks. There was no need. All of us knew what we were doing was right.”
Listen to and download “broadcast-quality” tracks at http://www.airplaydirect.com/SusanTedeschi
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Susan Tedeschi is part of the new generation of blues musicians looking for ways to keep the form exciting, vital and evolving. Tedeschi’s live shows are by no means straightahead urban blues. Instead, she freely mixes classic R&B, blues and her own gospel and blues-flavored original songs into her sets. She’s a young, sexy, sassy blues belter with musical sensibilities that belie her years.
Listen to and download “broadcast-quality” tracks at http://www.airplaydirect.com/AQUEFRIGIDE
Tragical Solid Solo Theatre Noise Project, this is the music synthesis coming from the rotten artist’s mind of BRE BESKYT DYRENE, established musician of the Underground scene of Rome. Distorted riffs, anguishing atmospheres, dark and unstable screams, melting into an original sound.
Produced, recorded and engineered at Subsound Records in Rome, Italy and mastered at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, Finland by Mika Jussila, “Un Caso Isolato” is the long awaited stunning debut album of Aquefrigide!
Listen to and download “broadcast-quality” tracks at http://www.airplaydirect.com/YARN
Yarn’s organic blend of acoustic country music has the warmth of old vinyl, the soul of Gram Parsons and the lyricism and profound musicianship that only comes from each member’s dedicated musical journey. This newly formed Brooklyn based band has used their songwriting, guitars, mandolins and shining vocal harmonies to capture a passionate following throughout the East Coast.
“The band’s textured, bluegrass-tinged Country is at once accessible and affecting. Frontman Blake Christiana’s singing voice is the aural equivalent of a broken-in pair of jeans-rugged, homey, and dependable. Among this bevy of top-notch bluegrass musicians, mandolinist Andrew Hendryx’s thoughtful, articulate playing emerges as a crucial part of the band’s sound. Though Yarn’s jam band roots are manifest at times, the instrumentation never preens or overpowers; Christiana’s masterful songwriting shines through in each song.
Listen to and download “broadcast-quality” tracks at http://www.airplaydirect.com/DanaLaCroix
Three albums, songwriting credits for a recent John Turturro film and touring activities covering Canada, Europe and the US have brought Dana LaCroix recognition as one of today’s most promising singer/songwriters. With a solid background in roots and folk music and a youth spent listening to the great pop and R&B artists of the 70’s and 80’s, LaCroix combines lyric sophistication with simple, catchy melodies, creating songs that are at once thoughtful and accessible.
With her brand new EP, Faith In You, LaCroix brings new aspects of her vocal and songwriting talent to light. A departure from her debut CD, the country and blues-tinged, Pride, Faith in You bespeaks a stylistic versatility that stretches from poignant acoustic ballads to driving, bass-heavy pop tunes.
AirPlay Direct… go straight to the source!
For more information on the Offensive Tie Music Group please visit www.offensivetie.com
For more information on the Planetary Group please visit www.planetarygroup.com
For more information on BigFatCat PR please visit www.bigfatcat.net
For more information on AirPlay Direct please visit www.AirPlayDirect.com
For more information on PLAY:stl Music Festival & Conference please visit www.playstlfest.com
For more information on PLAYBACK:stl please visit www.playbackstl.com