Want to know what a promoter is thinking when reviewing EPKs? Interested in industry and submission advice from the horses mouth? Check out our quick chats.

Doug Perlson, musician and CEO of TargetSpot talks to Sonicbids’ Jenny Langer about:

•      The evolution of internet radio over the last decade.

•      Effective marketing strategies for bands

•      The online radio ad boom and how it affects the music industry.

•      What you can do with just $50.

•      Why you need to wear the Marketing Hat.

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Read Doug’s article at Forbes.com mentioned in this Quick Chat.

Radio has once again found a fountain of youth – this time on the internet. Despite the internet’s seeming focus on visual stimuli, radio is booming online. According to a J.P. Morgan survey, internet radio’s listener base has grown 27% annually since 2000. Proving this point, both entrepreneurs and existing radio networks are all jumping on the gold rush bandwagon, making sure to stream their broadcast in order to tap into this burgeoning pool of listeners. For bands and promoters, this opens up a new opportunity to connect with new fans, particularly as companies like TargetSpot make it cheap and easy to promote music and shows on internet radio.

What makes Internet radio so appealing is the growth in the audience, the possibility of immediate feedback, and the ability to target your ads to a select audience. The precise targeting ability that online radio promises is particularly critical for the vast, untapped field of small advertisers, including as bands and promoters. Most broadcast mediums, and even many newspapers, are not within reach; there are high upfront costs for ads and the geographic reach is too broad. Internet radio changes the dynamic, allowing advertisers to create and deliver messages to the specific audience they want to reach, and only that audience.

Internet radio has serious built-in advantages for bands and musicians. Since the listeners are already online, they can instantly check on the band’s website, see where they’re playing next, and if they connect with the music, buy some downloads. For the bands, clubs and record companies, streaming radio’s targeting potential is a godsend. There is no waste of limited ad dollars – bands and promoters can hit exactly who they want to reach.

TargetSpot has the added benefit of a patent pending technology which allows bands and promoters to create their own advertising messages. Anyone can create cost-effective customized audio ads with an array of music beds, sound effects and visuals provided by TargetSpot. The musically savvy advertiser can also create their own ad with their own music and upload it directly into the system. In other words, what can be a prohibitively high-cost of ad creation is eliminated.

A JupiterResearch-Ipsos survey found that nearly two of every three respondents believe that radio trumps all other media outlets for finding new artists and songs. As online radio grabs an increasingly large share of this space, new and established musicians alike are tapping into its potential. All signs indicate that online radio is ready to take off, leading our oldest broadcast mass medium to a new heyday and giving emerging bands and promoters a powerful new opportunity to reach new fans.

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