Canadian Radio Promotion Services
Canadian Radio Promotion: Commercial
Canadian Radio Promotion: AM to FM covers all main formats: Active Rock, Alternative Rock, Country, CHR/TOP 40, HOT AC and AC, including the Quebec and French speaking market.
For a Canadian radio promotion campaign, the appropriate Canadian Sirius XM stations are also included in all campaigns for no additional costs. Pitching to the US Sirius XM stations is done occasionally if we have a song Andrea Morris thinks would appeal to a specific station. We also include reputable internet stations in most campaigns.
Commercial radio often doesn’t add an artist’s first single so it is important to have a plan for at least 3 singles to build your reputation with the stations. They are interested in supporting career artists.
Radio Interviews: We solicit radio interviews as part of all campaigns, however, many stations aren’t really interested in interviewing an artist on their first single, so most interviews happen on the second or third single.
Commercial Radio Promotion Process:
The process begins with Andrea listening to the music, and determining which format, if any, the song will be appropriate for. For example, a rock track would be worked primarily to ROCK radio, but if it has crossover potential, the song would also be worked to HOT AC or CHR radio.
As a general rule, most songs that lean on the pop side can appeal to at least two different formats – HOT AC and CHR. Once the format has been determined, Andrea begins the process of preparing the track for digital delivery to radio programmers. She has her own account with DMDS and PromoJukebox and both accounts are updated on a weekly basis to insure all information regarding radio is correct and reflects changes in formats and staff.
Andrea designs a sell sheet to accompany the single when it is sent digitally to radio. This sheet contains upcoming tour dates, the album release date, meta data for the song, a bio, favorable quotes regarding the music, and various contact information, i.e.: websites, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
Phone calls to radio stations begin the week the single is available digitally, alerting them to be on the lookout for the song, and then pushing them to listen to it and add it to their playlist. The face of radio has changed significantly over the last decade and it now takes at least six weeks to start to see progress at radio. We keep valuable relationships in order to insure success for our artists.
Major labels like Universal, EMI, Warner Brothers and BMG have large amounts of money to spend on marketing and promotion. The independent artists involved with AM to FM Promotions do not have budgets of that size, so it requires a completely different approach at radio.
Andrea is able to get stations to pay attention to her artists because they like and respect her. They also know she will not work records just to make money, but work with artists she truly believes in.
Canadian Radio Promotion: Campus
Canadian Campus and CBC radio are the perfect formats for new independent artists and those whose music doesn’t fit in with the mainstream.
Campus radio campaigns are different from commercial radio campaigns because Campus stations require at least a four song EP in order to be approached for airplay. Physical copies of the music are necessary for this campaign as many stations want a cd or vinyl to have in the studio for show hosts to choose from. Campus stations don’t accept singles, so it’s essential to have at least four songs to approach them with.
There are some stations that prefer digital copies of the music, so we set up the music for digital delivery too. The digital music is also sent to stations that prefer cds, as it gives the programmers a chance to hear the music before the cd arrives and speeds up the process of getting the music added to the station.
CBC radio is included in campus campaigns, and we also target a few US AAA (adult album alternative) stations that Andrea happens to enjoy listening to.