World Music Day - Significant or Not ??

So..

Guess everyone's through with celebrating the "World Music Day".

We played songs.. we did a lot of stuff on air... we were rocking!!!
Thats what everyone in radio would be thinking... Even in other media...And the clubbers too!!! Isn't it?
Yess.. you were rocking!!!

But... Did anyone of you actually try to understand the significance of the so called MUSIC DAY for the WORLD???
Did any of you ever googled it and read through the first few results??

NO....!!!!  Right??

Let me tell you what it actually means...

One origin of the term was the initiation of World Music Day (Fête de la Musique) in 1982 in France.
World Music Day has been celebrated on 21 June every year since then.

The Fête de la Musique, also known as World Music Day, is a music festival taking place on June 21.

Its a festival where a specific genre of music called World Music is celebrated.
It is not a day where music is celebrated as a whole.

What??? But we thought it was the 'WORLD' Music Day??
Now thats the expression you have reading this right??

Well yess... You were wrong...
Its not the  'WORLD' Music Day... but the  'WORLD MUSIC' Day..!!

So what is World Music??
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre.
In the classic definition, world music is the traditional music or folk music of a culture that is created and played by indigenous musicians and is closely related to the music of the regions of their origin.
The term was originally intended for ethnic-specific music, though globalization is expanding its scope; it now often includes hybrid sub-genres such as World fusion,Global fusion, Ethnic fusion and Worldbeat.

WESTERN RADIO AND WORLD MUSIC
Interestingly... World music radio programs these days often play African hip hop or reggae artists, crossover Bhangra and Latin American jazz groups, etc. Common media for world music include Public radio, webcasting, the BBC, NPR, and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

There also are awards...
The BBC Radio 3 Awards for world music was an award given to world music artists between 2002 and 2008, sponsored by BBC Radio 3. The award was thought up by fRoots magazine's editor Ian Anderson, inspired by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Award categories included: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Americas, Europe, Mid East and North Africa, Newcomer, Culture Crossing, Club Global, Album of the Year, and Audience Award. Initial lists of nominees in each category were selected annually by a panel of several thousand industry experts. In March 2009, the BBC made a decision to axe the BBC Radio 3 Awards for world music.

In response to the BBC's decision to end its awards program, the British world music magazine Songlines launched the Songlines Music Awards in 2009 "to recognise outstanding talent in world music".

The WOMEX (The World Music Expo) Award was first introduced in 1999 to honor the high points of world music on an international level and to acknowledge musical excellence, social importance, commercial success, political impact and lifetime achievement.[32] Every October at the WOMEX event, the award figurine - an ancient mother goddess statue dating back about 6000 years to the Neolithic age - is presented in an award ceremony to a worthy member of the world music community

So...
This is what the WORLD MUSIC DAY is about..
And what did we think/ do??

So as the old Indian saying goes... "Dil ko behlaane ke liye Ghalib... Khayaal achha hai.." :p Hahahahahahahahaha.....!!!!!!!!!


Stay Tuned... :)

The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - The First “M”: MUSIC

So what does music mean to the Radio business??

We all know the terms “Its 70% of the product” or “its 80% of the product”
Well… what do we understand from that?

Hmmm.. in simple words if we see commercial radio as a product that sells like any other commodity, the ingredients list would be as below.

• Music:- 82% 
• Humor:- 1.5% 
• Presenter’s Talk:- 1.5% 
• Interstitial:- 1.5% 
• Branding (Station Elements):- 1.5% 
• Others (Value adds):- 2% 
• Advertising:- 10% 

So.. Music is the main ingredient. A listener tunes to radio to listen to his favorite songs.
And that is true.

In case of radio in India, the advertising space allocated is a minimum of 12 minutes per hour.. That means 20% . all other stuff is the same... So music is 70%

Yes the presenter plays a big role too.. If you carefully see, the presenter always talks before the ad break starts. It’s a universal format. But did anyone ever think why only at this place?
Well a synonym for a presenter is “Host” similarly it is “Anchor”. What does an anchor do for a ship?
It holds the ship in place… Just like that the presenter needs to hold the listeners through the ad break.
Anyways.. Back to the topic… Music is the main ingredient.

Lately…
The management teams of any and every radio station in India are usually found saying this one sentence to the programming teams..
“Lets tweak our music in this city if we really want to beat the competition. Afterall its 80% of the product.”

So they end up looking at what the competition is playing and try to make their playlist similar, with a little tweaks to make it sound a bit different than the other station.

Now… The competition station comes to know that station X has changed their music.
They end up tweaking their own sound with regards to the little differentiator that station X had kept to ensure they do not sound like station Y completely.

And now the 3rd competitor comes to know that X & Y both changed… They look at their playlists…. Change accordingly and here again a differentiator is applied.

And so the station X now changes again looking at station Z change…. And then station Y does… and the cycle goes on… and on… and on…!! Well… competition you see.. ;)

Another of my mentors Kartik Kalla just gave me two rules to keep in mind when programming music for a station:-

• Pulse of the city
• Sound of the station 

Well any good music manager would know how to go by these two rules and succeed.
Let competition follow you… You started it… You gain the first mover’s advantage always.

The key to successful radio programming is consistency, not constant change based on competition.

Baba Ranchod Daas keh gaye the.. “beta kaabil bano… kaamyaabi to jhak maar ke peechhe aayegi”

But yahaan to race lagi hai… otherwise you will be a “Broken Anda”.

In our industry today, everyone is running their station based on Trial & Error.
Stations change formats every few months.

Well.. tell me something.. If a guest at your function did not like the Italian menu how can you be sure that he would like Thai food? Or vice a versa… If he liked Italian that you served, How can you be sure that he probably liked the Thai your competitor served more than your Italian food.???

The trouble is there is no conviction.
Managements do not trust the judgments of their employees. Well if you don’t trust them.. you don’t trust yourself… coz you hired them right??
Well you want numbers in a research that is done by a third party right? Trust your first party employees to work on it. They have to justify their salaries too.. so they will. But then there is no time.. so simply copy the competition. The competition is no less… they are doing the same.. copy you!

Who’s copying whom, god knows..
Who’s at loss, is the big question!

Any change no matter how small or big takes a minimum of 3 months to register into a listeners mind.
It would take an average human another month after that to react to it.
And organizations today nullify a change based on a research conducted 3 weeks after it was effected.

Any research with regards to any change in the music (or anything that relates to the station’s sound) should be done post 5 months after the change.
Here’s the maths.

• 1 month: for your own teams to digest and perfect it.
• 3 months: for the listeners to register it.
• 1 Month: for the listeners to actually come to a point where they can react to it.

Station’s loyalty is not built overnight. Check out the stations abroad.
Most of them probably have not changed formats for years.

Didn’t want to name stations in India, but Fever (Delhi) and City (Mumbai) are examples of having gained leads due to only one reason… Consistency & Patience.

Its not rocket science.

• Decide upon your stations sound. 
• Pick music accordingly keeping the pulse of the city in mind. 
• And stay put… Wait… Wait for 5-6 months for the results to show up. 
• Yes… tweak your stationality/ Humor capsules/ Jack-talk.. Everything as fine as possible to support the sound. 

And you’re done.

After six months, if you don’t see results.. Trust me you never followed the steps my mentor gave and I shared here.

In india.. we still remember Aamin Sayani’s show that started way back when AIR was Radio Cylon and lasted until the first few private radio stations came to existence. Why? Because it was consistent.

There is no good or bad music strategy. There are good or bad music policies. Keep your strategy alive for at least 6 months. It sure would be a great policy.

A clear, straight and structured approach is the most easiest and effective way.
The only thing to remember is that you will NEVER see results overnight.
Rome was not built overnight… nor was the BBC or the other top radio stations.

Would be posting about the second “M” soon.

Stay tuned :)

Previous Posts:-
The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

The Three “M”s of Radio Programming - Introduction

So...

My mentor Keith Fowler, came up to my desk one day.
Suddenly picked up a pen and a pad.
Scribbled something on the pad…
Tore the page and pinned it to the board in front of me.

It Read:-

The Three “M”s of programming-

1. Music (80% product)
2. Mornings (Breakfast)
3. Meetings (Imaging)

All he did was pin this up, and go back to his cabin…
Keeping me thinking what is it that he wanted to tell me.

Well…

Next time he came up and asked me what I figured out.
My reply was simple as an excited student.. “I need you to elaborate”.
So he sat next to me and explained it all.

Now when I am much experienced into the industry, I wonder how I would have reacted to various challenges had he not put up that small slip on my desk.

I really want to share that knowledge here and so would be explaining what each one is all about in my next 3 posts.

Stay Tuned.
Sumeet