Posted 11:36 AM by Dave Allen
The Cd listening post dilemma.

You know, this is one of those interesting questions. Listening stations have worked both ways for me personally. Just yesterday, no doubt wracked with guilt by Michael Greene’s Grammy speech last month, I bought four cds. I intended to only purchase one, “Geogaddi” by Boards of Canada which I picked up instantly. Then I picked up “Wanna buy a Monkey?” by Dan the Automator, “Simple Things” by Zero 7 and “Honeymoon” by DJ Cam. My criteria in these purchases was simple. I love everything that Dan the Automator & DJ Cam have done and I can’t get enough of Boards of Canada. Zero 7 on the other hand was a band that I have read about but was never compelled to search for online and luckily for me (them, their label?) they were on the listening station. I listened, I liked, I bought. Now in the past I have picked up cds that have been given glowing write ups and then I’ve listened to them in store and realized that my tastes and the average record reviewers tastes are way, way different, so therefore no sale occurred. So it’s Catch 22. The industry’s problem is simply that the Clear Channel and Infinity radio stations broadcasting their over-sanitized crap day in day out over the airwaves does not appeal to the young, new, generation of record buyers nor the boomer demographic like myself. The above mentioned cds I bought are most likely not getting any airplay (except for Dan’s “other” outfit, Gorillaz) but if people were exposed to them they would buy them. They are all brilliant albums in their own diverse way. This is where Webcasting Internet stations will beat the broadcasters in the long run. Launchcast, Music Match and RadioFreeVirgin are where it’s at for me and an awful lot of people I know. Maybe with enough cool content being accessed online via Internet Radio the retailers will get to rely less on the listening stations because the customers are far more informed when they enter the store. And those customers are not there to browse but to buy the cool music that they’ve been exposed to. As for what to stock, that’s a whole scenario that relates to the store buying in more of the cds that are in the listening station because the labels have bought into the program. And of course the more bought in is a problem if they don’t sell because then there is more to return and that hurts the artist and the label. So, Catch 22 indeed, damned if they do and damned if they don’t.