Inside Radio leads today with a collections of testimonials from program directors revealing how they use social media to track the popularity of new music.
Facebook and YouTube now offer PDs a window into how popular -- or burned -- a song is becoming (see, for instance this article from The New York Times). Lincoln Financial Media CHR KQKS/Denver music director Michael Buhrman says, "Social media has gone to the next level in the past few years as a tool for discovering new music, and helping determine whether a song is compatible with our audience."
Inside Radio adds, "But he and other programmers say it’s just one of many utensils in their toolkit, along with callout, music sales, online testing, requests and other traditional means."
"There is no telling who, what age, or what country (a new song's Facebook) likes and (YouTube) views are coming from," cautions KQMV and KLCK, Seattle PD Maynard. "I feel very confident in our systems of picking music and using the internet or social media as more of a tie breaker or an additional information source." Wilks Broadcasting EVP of programming Jeff Sanders adds, "If I see multiple success stories — You Tube views, iTunes sales, Facebook likes, Twitter followers — then we’ll pay attention."
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