One of two things will happen if you spend $20,000 on a radio campaign,
1. Nothing much will happen. The promoter will send you a few reports of some stations in Montana and Connecticut that played your single in their daily rotation. But you pretty much piddled away $20k.
It was the wrong single and/or the wrong radio promoter and/or bad timing and/or…
2. Things, in fact, start happening. 6 weeks in, the single is gaining some traction in key markets. The skies are looking sunny. Let’s start really revving the engines…Oh by the way, the radio promoter is going to need another $60,000 to keep going and really pushing the single up the charts.
To keep it going you have to keep funding.
The single’s doing well! We can’t pull the plug now, this is obviously THE song and its connecting! But all we had was $20,000, we ain’t got no mo money…this totally sucks. I guess we gotta pull the plug.
$20,000 not wasted, but kinda wasted.
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$20,000 is a lousy amount of money to spend on a radio campaign when that’s all you have to spend on a radio campaign. If it goes poorly, you’re broke and depressed. If it goes well, you’re frantic, broke and playing the coulda woulda shoulda game.
It’s important to spend your money wisely.
It’s important to put yourself around people (your team) who know how to spend your money wisely.
So here’s a word from the wise: Spend nothing on radio, or be financially prepared to spend a lot if it goes well, and financially sturdy enough to be ok if it doesn’t go well.
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com