How Much Influence Should You Tube Play In Music Decisions?

Jay Bedford, Program Director|Music Director|Morning Host at 1035 The Eagle/Sydney shared this fascinating factoid:

"So here are our five Power Currents for this week ... 5 of them ... and the corresponding number of views on YouTube ... plus one more song!

3.9 million views ... Blake Shelton ... Mine Would Be You
3.5 million views ... Chris Young ... Aw Naw
2.9 million views ... Tim McGraw ... Southern Girl
2.4 million views ... Robby Johnson ... South of Me1.2 million views ... Miranda Lambert ... All Kinds Of Kinds
1.1 million views ... Zac Brown Band ... Sweet Annie"

He asks:  "Should these figures have an influence? Those are amazing stats for an unknown guy from Quebec that is not play listed on any major radio stations. (Song is not Canadian content even though the artist is Canadian.)"

My reaction, after being intrigued, impressed and watching the video, is that streaming and downloads are a lot like sales figures.

I want to know more before deciding it's right for my radio station.  It would be interesting to see the location of the hits and views/listens to see how many are from your local area compared to the others.

Callout and online testing are still my major criteria for this reason, even over mScore tracking.

You know they are your heavy users, and even their age and gender cell, so you can target what we choose to play, but goodness knows this is certainly a great sign, among the many emerging stats that radio needs to stay aware of as listeners find new ways to discover new favorites.

"The Envelope, Please"

This is the time of year that every Country Music Association member gets both email and snail mails from every aspiring artist and musician wanting to be a CMA Award finalist.

Since I have already cast my vote in the latest round of nominations, my immediate reaction when I opened this email from Chris Young was to quickly glance at it and move along.

But, I couldn't.

Thanks to Chris and his team for not only providing a great kiss, a good laugh, but also a quick visual lesson in marketing anything.

If there was a "best solicitation for your vote" award category, this would get mine!

Lonestar And Chris Young Draw 2,500 In Wenatchee

John Windus, PD at KKRV reports: "The audience loved 'em," while providing a listener/artist-driven video primer on how to do a post-concert recap (click to watch it).

"We handed out our signs--you'll see em in the video. Cara Owen from RCA was great supplying us with Chris Young product that we had signed and then sold for donation to the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Lonestar signed the posters and took copy to record a nice follow up PSA they will voice then email to us."