Could you please tell us a little about your role at Face the Music 2014?
I’m Chris Johnson, the manager of online innovation and the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (Amrap) at the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. I’ll be on a panel with Jen Long (BBC), Chris Hatzis (3RRR) and Owen McKern (PBSFM) to explain how Australian musicians can get airplay on community radio and how community broadcasters are evolving to provide multi-platform opportunities for musicians through digital radio, web, mobile, and social media.
How has radio evolved along with technological advances, such as social media and music sharing platforms, and how can artists/management leverage off these developments?
Whilst free to air broadcasting is community radio’s primary platform, stations are innovating on other services to give an extra boost to Australian music. Broadcasters are cross-promoting artists through social media and legitimate music services like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Rdio and Spotify. Artists should be tracking social media for mentions and following broadcasters that air them to build on the relationship. Over 800 community radio programs now use our Amrap Pages service to post their playlists on station sites and social media, along with artist info and music videos. Artists can track this at amrap.org/airplay to discover where they’re being aired and then reach out to those broadcasters. Community radio is also generating awesome content through digital radio, webstreaming and radio on demand to promote music across multiple platforms and devices.
If you could let Beat readers know one hidden gem about the music industry that you wish you knew of earlier, what would it be?
Most music industry folks are bloody lovely so there’s no need to be shy!
AIRPLAY AND BEYOND (presented by Melbourne Music Week) brings together industry gurus to discuss new ways for artists, broadcasters and audiences to connect that go beyond traditional airplay, and how to take full advantage of new media tools. It goes down on Friday November 14 at The Arts Centre. Head to facethemusic.org for more info and events.
