radio promotion and playlist promotion: what is legal to buy.
you can pay someone to bring your record to radio stations and playlist curators. you cannot legally pay a station for airplay that is not announced as paid, and Spotify bans any service that guarantees playlist placement for money. the pitch to Spotify's own editors is free and you send it yourself.
by Studio Raine, a music PR firm in New York. we sell some of what this guide describes, and our own prices are marked as ours.
updated
radio: the rule is disclosure.
“if a record company or its agent pays a broadcaster to play records on the air, those payments do not violate these provisions of the law if the required sponsorship identification information is timely aired by the broadcast station.”
so paid airplay is legal when the station says on air that it was paid and by whom (FCC). hidden, it is payola: a fine of up to $10,000, up to a year in prison, or both (47 U.S.C. 508). these are broadcast rules. they cover radio and television stations, not streaming services.
a radio promoter is paid for the work of bringing your record to stations. the stations are not paid. that is the legal version of the trade, and it is why a promoter can promise effort and cannot promise spins.
playlists: Spotify's own rules.
- guaranteed placement for money breaks Spotify's terms, and Spotify says such services should not be used (Spotify).
- music promoted through services that sell streams can be removed (Spotify).
- official playlists cannot be bought. in its editors' words: “you cannot pay to get on an official Spotify playlist” (Spotify for Artists).
- the route to the editors is Spotify for Artists: pitch an unreleased song at least 7 days before release (Spotify). it is free (Spotify), and a pitch is consideration, not a placement.
independent curators are a separate market. the platforms below charge you to put a song in front of a curator, who then decides. you are buying a listen, not an add.
what it costs, where the price is printed.
| seller | what is priced | price | term |
|---|---|---|---|
| SmoothJazz.com | radio airplay promotion for a new release | $1,299 | 6 weeks |
| Gorov Music Marketing | what it says most smooth jazz radio promoters charge | $300 to $400 a week | not stated |
| Playlist Push | Spotify playlist pitching campaign | from $280 a campaign | not stated |
| SubmitHub | credits to send a song to a curator: 1 to 5 credits each | $1 a credit | not stated |
| Groover | sending a track to a curator, a label or a blog | from $2 a contact | not stated |
| Musosoup | campaign fee to be shown to blogs, playlists and stations | £42 a campaign | not stated |
where this sits next to press.
radio and playlist promotion are their own campaigns with their own specialists. we do not sell either. we sell the press side: the campaign, the release and podcast bookings. when you hire a radio promoter, run the two on the same calendar so a station hears about a record the press is already covering.