Who decides the music that we listen to in radio? The answer to this question is as articulated as the process that leads the broadcasters, local and national, to draw up their “ladders”. The difficult part is, clearly, that of Choose carefully the songs to be transmitted to attract the public and maximize listeningwhich are crucial for the sale of advertising spaces. The musical selection, unfortunately, no longer depends only on the individual taste of the DJs or the speakers, but relies on professionals who take care of planning systematicly.
The factors that influence the choice of songs to be transmitted on the radio
The musical selection process is influenced by several factors: the radio formatThe Target of listeners el ‘sound image that the issuer wants to project. Some radios, such as those that focus on a young audience, focus on trendy songs, while others, aimed at a more mature audience, tend to privilege the successes of the past. Also thetransmission time He plays an important role: at night, for example, it is more common to listen to relaxing music, while during the day the programming is more dynamic and varied. The choices are also made on the basis of music rankingslike those provided by platforms such as Earone, who trace the most played songs on the different broadcasters.
In some radio, the musical selection takes place through methods such as theAuditorium Testa process that involves real listeners who express their liking towards specific songs. This type of test is expensive and long, but allows you to Collect direct feedback on music liking. According to some specialized sites, the heart of modern musical programming, however, resides in technology: radio use ad hoc software that allow you to plan every detail of the transmission, creating real Musical “clock”. These “watches” determine the rotation of the songs, dividing them into “High”, “Average” And “Low” rotations depending on the frequency with which they are transmitted. The most popular songs are those that end up in the “high rotations”, while the less known ones have reduced visibility, going to lower rotation.
In commenting on how the radio choose the songs to be broadcast At Smitha musical programmer who in the last 10 years has helped to choose the melodies for some of the largest youthful radio stations in the United Kingdom, to BBC reported that the game is basically “understand what the reference public would like to».
The “democratization of music”
Although radio can choose to promote new songs, the trend is that of Playing music that reflects the consolidated tastes of the publicoften in tune with the successful rankings. The record companies, which in the past had a greater power in determining which songs they arrived on the radio, today have less influence. Independent labels and smaller record companies are no longer able to finance radio to promote their artists, although they can still try to influence programming through promotional campaigns or the offer of exclusive.
Radio are forced to adapt to changes in musical tastesoften for Avoid losing listening and, consequently, to avoid a possible flexion of advertising revenues. And then there is the social question: platforms like Tiktok have given fans greater power, which can now in some way influence the musical choice more than what happened in the past. The virality of a song about Tiktok, as in the case of the song If We Ever Broke Up Of Mae Stephenshas shown that Even artists not under contract with record labels can end up in the radio playlists If their song becomes viral.
At Smithalready mentioned previously, in this regard, has in fact reported that “radio stations will promote artists not under the record contract if there are other factors that determine the success of that song” and one of these is the virality that a song has on web platforms Smith defines this phenomenonDemocratization of music“
But not all musical choices are accepted without criticism, and radio stations must deal with the difficulty of satisfying the expectations of all their listeners.
