JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum A GREAT Promo Tool!

As most of you guys know, or may not know, I've been busier than hell since the first of the year recording, starting a new Indie label, and promoting both Cookie's and mine CD's to the world radio market. It has been incredibly brain-wracking, but incredibly rewarding as well.
Over $800.00 in postal fees later, Agua Noir and Manhattan Grits are at their respective genre's radio stations, both here and across the planet. Literally.
Both are getting airplay, and both are selling well.

Along the way of spending 100's of hours gathering addresses on the net, I happened onto a site called AirPlayDirect. At first, it all looked too good to be true, and I dismissed it. By accident, I happened on it again, and really started reading through it. In the nutshell, the site lets you post 3 songs for free, and then enables you to send one or all of the songs anywhere in the world that has an email. Add to that that the site automatically builds you a very professional DIGITAL PROMOTION KIT for sending those songs. It includes your bio, picture, "play it" button for streaming the songs immediately, and info on how the recipient can download BROADCAST
QUALITY Hi-bit MP3's to either listen to, or PLAY ON THE AIR!

Needless to say, I was amazed. I uploaded my old Country album, "Like I Do" (now called "ENDLESSLY"), and sent the thing to all of the emails on certain playlist boards that cover the world and the US. To my amazement, well over 50 stations downloaded songs from the DPK (Digital Promo Kit) and are now playing all over the globe. AND IT DIDN'T COST ME A PENNY!
I now have all of my stuff on the site, and am sending it all over the world.

I called the gentleman that owns the site, Robert Weingartz, and asked him if he realized the quantum leap he had on his hands.
He laughed. Of course he realizes. It's just that most folks are so used to the old ways of doing things, it hasn't caught the music world by
storm. YET!

Not only can you send your stuff to radio, but, like I said, you can send this professional DPK to ANY Email addy. Like Labels. Publishers. Movie Song houses. ANYWHERE! FOR FREE!

When I think of the 7 or 8 really great bottles of single-malt I couldda bought with that $800 I spent on postage....Geeze!

Ya might wanna give AirPlayDirect a try. It IS a bit of a pain to re-do your MP3's to hi-bit, but the quality of your music more than justifies the time it takes. If you join, tell them cookbeaux sent ya. www.airplaydirect.com

Whoa...

I think I love this. Thanks Paul.

Thanks Paul:

This looks too good to be true. (You know the old addage about "too good to be true"... but what if this one is for once... just for once... a real deal.!) I will be looking over this one with a fine toothed comb.

Thanks again.

Dave

I've been a member of Air Play Direct since the first of the year. I have no complaints. Nothing has led me to believe that they are a scam. And they seem to do what they say. Just do not try to read more into what they say than what they are actually saying. Of course, that is true of anything.

They are not a huge benefit for me because I am no longer a performing artist. And that is their main function...to get exposure and opportunities for performers, more so than composers. But, I remain on board just becasue you never know how things can happen in the most unexpected ways.

I will simply say that in my opinion, there is no problem with the site and the way they present themselves and their services. If I were still a performing artist, I would probably be very active with their site.

Alan

Thanks for the tip Paul ! ! ! ! And of course Alan's thumbs up means alot

Thanks Al:

I consider your advice as "good as gold." I'll get started signing up ASAP. Good to know you think they are legit!

Regards,

Dave

Hey guys...

Just a quick follow up to my first post on this thread. I had intended to say, but forgot to, that you should expect an occassional email from them promoting their for-pay services. However, you are not spammed endlessly. I received a couple shortly after I joined the site. Since initial enrollment, I have received one or two each month thereafter. I do not consider that to be excessive. Likewise, I have not received any spam emails that appear to have been generated by my participation on the site. Hope you guys find the site to be helpful, if you decide to participate. As always, wishing all of you su8ccess and all the best.

Alan

Thanks for the info Paul. I'm still trying to catch up to the 21 century way of doing things.


Barry

Al:

I'm having he** getting my WAV format song to play properly once I have uploaded it to Airplay Direct. It sounds like "Alvan and the Chipmunks." Any idea what I need to do to correct this condition? My editing program automatically records at 44100 bits. Would a change to a sample rate of 96000 help?

Otherwise, I need to take this puppy down... and fast. I don't want folks to think I'm really that bad!

Dave

Al:

I finally figured out what was going on and took corrective action. One song has been uploaded now with two to go. My first song posted at AirPlayDirect was selected by a Nashville Producer as one of five songs to be sent forward to a country duo for recording... out of more than 200 songs submitted by artists and writers here at JPF. I named it, "Brown Bag Romance."
My original target for singing the song is Mickey Gilley but I never found a way to get it into his capable hands.

Thanks again,

Dave

What do they charge for their paid service? What is the advantage of going with a paid service?

I think it's $10.00 per song over the first 3 free ones. The advantage is, you can send your entire cd if you want.

Remember. This is not an end-all, cure-all. A lot of PD's are skeptics, still, about downloads. There's still a lot of old foagies, like me, in the "biz", and change comes slow, as we all know.
Incredibly, Europe and Australia seem quite at ease with the DPK's, as do a lot of Internet-based network stations, I'm finding.

One of the features I like is the daily download report, telling you what station downloaded what song.

Hey, I hope this helps you folks out. Cheers!

Hello again, Paul, Al and Everett:

I thought you might like to see what I've done so far:

http://www.airplaydirect.com/DaveRice

After lots of uploading exercises... I finally got 3 of my 648 songs "up and running." I even got my picture (in living color)plastered across the page with a brief bio. I know there is a lot left to be done to "gussy up" my "page" a little... including squeezing my face back to it's proper width... but, for a first 24 hours of effort, I'm reasonably pleased.

Next, I've gotta get busy with some "avant-garde" artwork or something eyecatching and/or semi-interesting to hypnotize folks into "buying" some songs. Then maybe I can afford to upload another couple of little dittys. LOL!

Thanks again Paul... for sharing this info with us... and to you, Al... for reinforcing the warm-fuzzy feelings about this site.

Regards,

Dave

Hey Dave...

"Brown Bag Romance" is pretty darned catchy. I played a lot of that kind of music for quite a few years. It put more than a few dollars in my pocket. Is that you singing? Whomever it is sure has the perfectr voice for that style. Enjoyed it!

Alan

How do you convert your Mp3 or WAV file to there requirments?

Hi Al:

Glad you like "BBR." Yes, that's "the old groaner" doing the vocal. I had Mickey Gilley in mind but he was in Bermuda on vacation. LOL!

Thanks,

Dave

Ben,

When you got to upload your music, it will ask you what kind of file you are submitting, MP3, WAV, OGG, etc. It will then tell you to upload and it will do all the conversions for you to make it compatable to their site. If you do upload a wav file, it will take a little bit of time...even with high speed broadband. Hope I answerd your question.

Alan

Ben:

I downloaded a free "Ripper" and simply stuck one of my CDs in the Player of my laptop. After ripping, I went through AirPlayDirect's uploading process, typed in the lyrics and sent a JPEG photo (not quite to their specs) for starters. Also typed up a brief bio to provide some "filler."

There is conflicting info on AirPlay's site about whether or not they accept MP3's or WAV format tunes. I took the "safe route" and did the WAV format deal.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for filling in the blanks for Ben that I neglected to do. Of my three songs, one is in WAV format and the other two are in MP3 format. WAV took me about 12 minutes to upload. MP3 took less than two minutes.

Alan

Well I don't get it. Why should I rip music from a CD when I have it on file on my computer?

I just went there, filled in my application, made a few mods...five minutes later, it's up and running. Looks are not to bad, tomorrow I'll upload and prepare to take over the world! Thanks a lot for posting this!

Ben,

You don't have to. When it asks you for the song to upload, it gives you a "browse your computer" option. Simply find the MP3 or WAV file, double click on it and it will start to upload. just that easy!

Alan

Ben:

A word of caution. I tried the method Al described and my first song sounded like the "chipmunks." I had to delete and start over again using the WAV format. Of course, it may have been "operator error" or surely not a "senior moment."

At least I finally got all three songs up and running and sounding at least adequate. (Not happy with the non-ability to "normalize" all songs to the same volume.) My last song posted is in need of more volume so I'll probably delete it, take the original and run it thru and editor (Wave-Pad) and increase the volume... then upload again. After all, we want these high paid radio executives to hear us at our best. LOL!

Dave

Hey Dave,

Sorry to hear that that easy way it didn't work for you. Here is a link to my page. I uploaded all three songs the way I described and didn't have a single problem. Hope it all gets right for you real soon.

http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/index.php?mode=login


Alan

Well, I see that that didn't work! It just took me to the login page, although I copied the URL from my Artist page. I'll see if I can get the correct URL.

Let's try this one:

http://www.airplaydirect.com/AlDavid

IT WORKS!

Unfortunately, I'mon dialup service, upload speeds will max out around 11.2kbps, I tried to upload two songs to OurStage on Monday...didn't work! One was 5.8Mb, (4:26 in length at 192 kbps)I was given an estimated upload time of 27 hours 11 minutes. I got it done in a rather sneaky way though.

Truthfully, I uploaded the two songs onto my cell phone, went to a local big-box computer store, paired my cell via Bluetooth with a computer in the store, transferred the songs, connected to the net with the laptop in the store and sent them on their merry way. I checked whe I got home and they're safe and snug in their new homes on the world and instrumental channels. So I'll likely be doing this again for AirPlay direct too.

I was able to upload a WAV file the easy way. Took 15 minutes but they said that it couldn't be streamed or downloaded so I deleted it since I was the only one who could listen to it. They have me totally confused with their minimum kbps etc.
I joined two years ago but have never uploaded a song. Now I remember why. Initially, they wanted me to send my CD in the mail. I didn't want to do that so I forgot about them.
I just read their TOS and didn't see any mention of royalties paid by the Internet or Broadcast stations. I don't know if they are required to include this or not. So good luck to you guys who got through, but they seem to be another pain in the ass to me. Until they become more user friendly, I'll have to pass on them again. Ben

Being on dialup, if I have to upload anything over 192kbps, I might as well forget it,even that will take about an hour to upload.

Everett:

Would Marc's method work for you? It sounds pretty "hi-tech" to an old geezer like me... but you've gotta hand it to him... that guy is clever to the core.

Dave

I don't know and I don't think I want to try it, sound too involved for my limited mind. It would be easier to put it on CD and go to a friend's house that has high speed, put it on his hard drive and upload it, but I can't impose on someone to do that, besides that is a lot of work, and since I retired, work is a four letter word. LOL

Ben:

I've gotta agree that "user friendly" is not a hallmark of this site. Thank goodness I've got hi-speed, 'cause when I had the same setup as Everett about a year ago, I just could not endure the pain of waiting for hours.

Everett:

I'll be surprised if anything comes out of this deal... anything meaning Airplay. It appears that once you get your stuff up and running, you have to be the promoter (my weakest link) and make all the radio station contacts yourself... or pay someone to do it for you. I will "soldier on" a little while but my attention span is waning... LOL!

The next challenge is figuring out how to make the artwork actually appear on-screen and look attractive.

Dave

you have to be the promoter (my weakest link). I will "soldier on" a little while but my attention span is waning... LOL!
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I hear you Dave, I hear you, we must be cut from the same cloth. LOL

Al:

Forgive me for not mentioning that I listend to your three listings. Great tunes. Very nice!

Dave

Dave,

No apolgy needed. But, glad you enjoyed them. If nothing else, I'm ecclectic as heck! Thanks!

Alan