Songwriters find that radio is tried-and-true
Though the CMJ Music Marathon - which set up camp across Manhattan last week, drawing more than 120,000 music fans - generally focuses on new artists and new developments in the industry, it turns out that sometimes previously established routes may still be the most reliable roads to success.
While MySpace pages, YouTube viral videos and flashy placements in TV shows and commercials may get all the buzz, at the CMJ panel "The Path of a Hit Song," successful songwriters said the best way to land a hit is a tried-and-true one: Get on the radio.
Songwriter Nina Ossoff, who has worked on songs for Daughtry and Phil Stacey, says because declining sales have hurt everyone in the industry, she now has to "deal in volume," trying to get as many songs placed wherever she can to make up for lower sales and a lack of radio exposure.
"The business is so singles-driven now," Ossoff says, adding that the new trend is for songwriters to submit only a verse and a chorus to execs, who will tell them to finish songs that have hit potential.
"Radio's become more important because of what has happened," said David Katz, half of the production-songwriting team S*A*M and Sluggo, responsible for recent hits from Boys Like Girls, The Academy Is . . . , and Metro Station. "The hit song's become a more important medium because no one buys albums any more."
