- Irish radio still has a good period of years to go in it’s current formatted life cycle and is adopting to internet/digital platforms which has begun a newer life cycle’s birth. So it makes sense to enshrine 40% airplay for Irish artists in law going forward just as much today as it did in the past. It can be reviewed on a regular basis for adjustment to counter market and technological factors.
- Every small recording artist is a potential business and even if that employs one or a few people, there are knock on effects in service industries, hospitality, cultural and community sectors across the country. Who would have predicted the success of Irish dance before the airing of Riverdance and the massive explosion of dancers now working professionally for 20 or more years. The incubation of this talent can be traced back to people of Irish cultural background and heritage teaching their youngsters to dance and fostering the culture of dance. Likewise the music we know as Riverdance was fostered in youth through music lessons. But without constant media exposure and backing, it would not have become the successful phenomenon it did. Even the sound of dancers made radio post Eurovision. The sound of Irish cultural success. More children than ever receive tutoring in music, performing arts, and technology at their parent’s expense and the seedbed of talent for the future gets sown.
- The musician/artist seems to be always playing catch up with the business side of things. Musicians/creators formed IMRO to capture due royalties and monies started to come to artists. But more needs to be done to continuously improve the situation. Internet/streaming payout is a battle being waged for and by artists who don’t have the luxury of a wage income, but must try and exist on several income streams unless a big musical hit materialises. Internet earnings are a pittance and while there are moves afoot challenging the youtubes and spotify’s for better rates, the evolution process to a decent payday for creators seems a long way off yet. The dream of earning a minimum wage from streaming is still a very distant possibility. So musical talent needs more help and a guaranteed % exposure on Irish radio and support must begin at home in the home market place. The revenue that can be paid down to artists can be significant and helpful in helping them persevere at critical times in their artistic career and help offset some recording/production costs. The artist to survive as a business, must become a multi-tasker also engaging in all aspects of promotion/media/gigging/creating/recording/engineering/packaging….a jack of all trades , but master of none. But if they have some income to plough back in to a project, they can hire help, improve, and manage time and resources better.
- There is a battle for ad revenue amongst all media, radio, tv, news , social media sites….it is prohibitive for the small artist to take out decent advertising and the big four global music companies can monopolise airtime through linked ad revenue threats/promises and touring major stars can garner coveted ad time and airplay. These same companies, though slow to adopt to the digital evolution have caught on and bought substantial shareholdings in the youtubes/spotify,s and streaming services. It’s big business. So the small artist needs rebalancing to help gain exposure for their art and music.
- Change is always a challenge and most people don’t like it. Irish artists at many levels are now making noise and demanding change. Why can’t we change and improve. It is about improving our lot.
- My own personal journey in releasing a self-funded album taught me a few lessons about the music business. I have listened to a lot of genuinely talented artists bemoan the difficulties and admit defeat when aiming for exposure through airplay. I know the level of effort and cost and time that goes into getting even a small amount of airplay. The return on investment in hours and euros did not cover much of the costs incurred.
- The freedom of DJ’s to play to the strength of their own musical choices has been curtailed by radio owner/management and commercial advertising revenue driven agendas. The DJ was the delivery person for new music and they are also subject to less secure employment contracts than in the past and few if any adopt the shock jock approach and rock the boat because they need to earn a living too.
- I am supporting the quota to ensure certain niche genres get a lifeline on air and Irish culture, folk ballads and pop songs alike may once again share primetime side by side slots on Irish air. I believe we have excellent talent and it needs nurturing, exposure, and development through a higher percentage on radio airplay in its native country.
- All radio stations would do well to add a section to their websites detailing guidelines on submission of music by artists. None of those I investigated had such guidelines and an acknowledgement of receipt of an artists work is a rare phenomenon, in spite of ease of email and social media platforms for communications. The guidelines need to indicate who to send music to, how to get in into their libraries and a rough guide of what genres/programmes go together. It is an expense for an artist to have to send several individual copies of a cd to several DJ’s, producers in the same station. Most have established digital libraries in the modern age and full use should be made of technology to help reduce costs and time for both station and artist personnel.
- A stastistic from 2001…..93.6% of royalties paid out went to 20 Irish artists or their record companies. There are a few thousand songwriters operating in Ireland left to divide the remaining 6.4%. There is no reason to assume that this has changed dramatically. 92% of the Irish market is controlled by only 4 record labels. Most of those few thousand songwriters are not signed to any label.
