JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum I pity today's DJs

If stations are switching to the old classics, it's not because of the economy and lack of advertising revenue, it's because they want to hold on to listeners. The old classics are tried and true songs and of much better quality than much of what is coming out today. I don't mean production quality, I mean content quality. I can't remember the last time that a song playing on the radio caught my attention to make me listen to every word. One time the quality (content quality) of one song was enough to send people looking to buy the CD that it was on, now, of course, they might head to the internet to find that song, the honest people will buy it while the less than honest will look for a free download.

My understanding of airplay royalties is that it comes from the ad revenue that radio stations earn. A percentage of their ad money is paid to the PROs, whom in turn, pays it out to the owners of said songs. If ad revenue is down, then the money paid to PROs will be less,and therefore less will be paid to song owners.

If record labels don't change their approach on what they record, and start looking far and wide for the best content that they can find, then the writing is on the wall. The best singers in the world need great songs to sing, and being great singers don't necessarily make them great songwriters. Great writer often can't sing, rarely do you find people having all the talents necessary to produce all that is needed to produce great records. You need great writing, great singing, great music, great engineering, great producing, great advertising, great distribution, great money, etc. and a whole lot of luck. One man can't do it all. We depend on each other, no one is an island unto him/her self.

Record labels now look for two or three great songs per CD and fill the rest of the CD with run of the mill songs, hoping those few songs will sell the CD. But that doesn't work anymore, people can get those songs on the net cheaply or free. Either they stop the cheap, and especially free downloading, which seem impossible, or they are going to have to come up with other ways to deliver music to people so that they will be happy to buy. I can't say I have the answers of how to do this but I do have a few ideas.