I get e-mail from time to time from some of our cohorts stating that I’m a bit whacked and my ideas are dangerous.  You want dangerous?   Here’s dangerous… playing new music and not announcing what it is, why you’re playing it, what it might mean to the listener, not painting a picture or giving the listener an intriguing reason to listen to it.  That guys and girls is dangerous.  It’s dangerous and problematic.

If you have live DJs on the air and you / they elect to play a generic sweeper before a new track (250 plays or less) then you’ve just created a huge tune out factor no matter how good the track is or how familiar the voice that sings it may be.

If your live DJs idea of announcing the new track from Phantom Planet is, “Hey this is new from Phantom Planet.  It’s called Do The Panic.”  This still isn’t much better.  Though this could be considered an improvement based on more information but it’s still not a compelling reason to listen to an unfamiliar song.

New music is a huge value proposition but only if the new track or artist is given some value before the listener is asked to waste 3 to 4 minutes of their time assessing if the song is worthy.  Without giving the song added value most listeners will change channels before they even get to the hook of the song.

The problem is amplified in the all to common voice track hours or the becoming way to common nothing but sweepers hours.

Playing new music is a sales job much like any other product.  When was the last time you saw or heard a commercial for any product that didn’t try to instill a feeling, an emotion or information of why you need this product?  Can you imagine if Honda ran a 30 second commercial for the new Civic and all you see is a picture of the car and the announcer says is, “This is the new Honda Civic.”   Errrr, I like Honda’s and I’m not even infected or interested.  But if the announcer says something to the affect of, New for ’09, the new Honda Civic.  It’s fast, nimble, sleek and gets 35 miles to the gallon!  Now you can afford to go somewhere and look good while doing it!”  Ahhhh, now that’s a bit more interesting. 

Again, playing new music is crucial if this or any format that wants 18-34s wants to thrive.  But for God’s sake let’s make it easier for the listeners to listen along by peaking their interest with a short story, antidote, observation, proposition or general plea to why the next 4 minutes of unfamiliar listening is well worth the investment.  Think of it as an investment in added time spent listening.