Profanity - a theological issue - is my primary and only real concern about Christian radio today. It’s the only thing, to me, that’s worth fighting about. But there are other issues worth discussing, worth working through with those in the radio industry.
Among those is testing - specifically, how songs are tested by radio stations before being deemed worthy of airplay. Many stations test songs on a group of target-market females without ever playing the songs on the air first. Some of us believe this isn’t in the best interest of the music business in the long run. Here are three observations about this form of music testing that will hopefully explain why some of us in Nashville don’t think it’s the best way to do business or treat listeners and artists.
1. When a radio station tests music without playing it on the air a few hundred times first, the test is primarily measuring the familiarity of a song, not how well the song will be received by its audience in the long run. The “long run” is as few as 300 spins away, by the way.
I majored in music composition with an emphasis on music of world cultures. (Impressed? Of course not.) One of the great unexpected insights gained from all that study was an understanding of how human beings, across cultures, religions, and history, determine which music is “good” and which is “bad.” A song, for instance, won’t be considered “good” by the listener unless it is familiar.
I’ll give you a far-fetched scenario to make the point. Imagine Mozart - someone universally considered a musical genius - were to be transported from his time and his culture into another. Say, we transported him into the 1980’s in America. Would he think any music made in the 20th Century was “good?” Ethnomusicologists say he wouldn’t. Having never heard a synthesizer and a song with a verse, chorus, bridge form sung in English, he’d reject pop music in the 80’s as weird. It would be too different from what he knows to even be considered musical to his brain. Also, having never heard a piece of music without a key signature and containing mixed meters, he would also reject “classical” atonal music of the 80’s. It too would contain almost no familiar musical elements for him.
Turns out, the first thing we humans unconciously determine about a song is whether it is familiar.
We also like surprises though: A bridge that changes key unexpectedly and returns to the original for the closing chorus, a rhyme we’ve never heard before, etc. But if we’re played a snippet of a song and forced to rate it as “good” or bad”, having never heard the song before, we aren’t warm to those surprises. Such surprises in a short clip make the clip feel more unfamiliar than familar. It’s then labeled “weird”, not “good.” A song must contain both familiar elements and surprises, and in the right amounts, if it’s to have a chance of being called “good.” Testing never-before-heard songs guarantees that songs with any amount of surprise in their short samples will be rejected...especially when being tested before or after very familiar sounding songs. The contrast is startling to the listener.
Play the song a few times for us though, in it’s entirety, and what was once weird and new can be more easily appreciated as “good.”
Take my song “Twilight” and the testing it underwent at two major stations, as an example. A certain large Adult Contemporary radio network tested the song. I was elated. They reported back to us, however, that it tested horribly. On a scale of one to five it received a two point something.
At the same time, KXOJ in Tulsa played “Twilight” a few hundred times on the air and then tested it. It did quite well. And it wound up on their year end chart, proving that their listeners loved it in the long run. And my sales in Tulsa on that album back up that claim as well.
Both stations tested the song on females of the same age in the bible belt (I think that’s important) using roughly the same methods. But only one played the song first, getting listeners/test subjects past the awkward new phase and enabling them to give a true opinion of the song, not how it’s unfamiliarity made them feel.
2. Testing music without playing it first irritates the music business folks and the consumer by killing diversity of choice. It gives listeners more imitations and fewer originals. It penalizes innovation and the new artist and rewards the copycat.
As one radio program director recently lamented to me over dinner after naming five female artists who, to him, sound identical: Record labels keep making the same record over and over.
Of course they do, I said. It gets played. And what gets played sells. And you have to sell stuff if you’re in the music business.
Need examples? That’s risky, but OK.
Mercy Me, Casting Crowns, and Stephen Curtis Chapman: Great guys. BUT...Vocally very similar. The production, also similar. Lyrical themes and style vary, but not much.
Barlow Girl’s first album and Evanescence: Good girls. I like what they say to teens and tweens everywhere about purity. BUT...A blatant imitation.
Jimmy Needham: Talented guy. So why did his first single sound just like Curbside Prophet by Jason Mraz? It sure tested well.
And then there are the covers of mainstream songs: Rosanna becomes Hosanna. Kyrie gets made over (with almost no changes) by Mark Shultz. Selah resang Josh Groban. My label’s radio promoter suggested I remake “Live Like You Were Dying.” Why? Radio will play it.
And what about worship music? A guy from our local AC station told me that I needed to find a worship song everyone knows and redo it so I can get back on the charts. Like By The Tree, The Newsboys, Big Daddy Weave, Michael W. Smith, Rebecca St. James and… The surest way to test well these days and, therefore, get played is to stop singing a new song and sing someone else’s, especially if church services have already made it familiar to test subjects. (How many Hymn records have been put out in the last three years for the same reason?)
3. Testing songs that haven’t been played on the air yet turns test subjects into nothing but a focus group. And leaders don’t limit themselves to the feelings of focus groups. Focus groups don’t know what they want or need or what they will like over time. All they know is what has already been done, what they liked once, what they might like again, how they feel. That’s a flakey set of data to base a business, let a lone a ministry, upon.
Consider this: If Henry Ford consulted a focus group, he would have made better horses instead of cars. That’s what the people thought they needed. Horses were all they’d ever known. Horses were familiar. They knew what to do with a horse. When the first farmers were shown the first car they laughed. But once they saw a few in action, well, exposure has a way of changing minds doesn’t it? Think about that the nest time you’re driving down the road listening to one of the many recordings of Breathe on your local Christian radio station.
Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store
DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for 99 pence in May
London, April 2, 2007—Apple today announced that EMI Music’s entire digi-tal catalogue of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes Store (http://www.itunes.co.uk) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just 99 pence per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previ-ously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 20 pence a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalogue, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today —128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM — at the same price of 79 pence per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.
“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice – the current versions of our songs for the same 79 pence price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 20 pence more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”
“EMI and iTunes are once again teaming up to move the digital music industry forward by giving music fans higher quality audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings, with no usage restrictions on the music they love from their favourite artists,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group.
With DRM-free music from the EMI catalogue, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favourite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. DRM-free songs purchased from the iTunes Store will be encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps, and will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.
iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 20 pence a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalogue with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. Television shows and feature films are available in the US only, and video availability varies by country.
With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and the ability to turn pre-viously purchased songs into completed albums at a reduced price, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and rein-vented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and will enter the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.
For additional information visit Apple’s PR website (www.apple.com/uk/pr).
EMI Music Launches DRM-Free Superior Sound Quality Downloads Across Its Entire Digital Repertoire
Apple’s iTunes Store to be the First Online Music Store to Sell EMI’s New Downloads
London, 2 April 2007—EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.
The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI’s existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI’s retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI’s new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.
Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, “Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.
“Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money.”
“Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free.”
Apple’s iTunes Store (http://www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI’s new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.
EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.
EMI’s move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones’s “Thinking About You”, Relient K’s “Must’ve Done Something Right”, and Lily Allen’s “Littlest Things” were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.
EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).
Nicoli added: “Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists’ music.”
For further information on EMI, please visit: www.emigroup.com.
