How do record companies keep track of what deejays play?

Question

Is it an automated or honor system? How does it work?

Answer 1

Normally what happens is when a song gets released they put it in some sort of rotation (heavy, medium, light) and depending upon the popularity of the song or artist...that will dictate what category it goes into and from there the Program Director selects what songs get played and how frequent (the more popular the more often it is played).  Sometimes record companies call stations and ask them (it might not work this way at all stations, but I know the station that I worked at would get calls from record companies all the time asking if we were playing their stuff).  Normally you can tell what is getting played by the ratings.

It might not be this way at all stations, but I know a lot of them work like that.

I know at my station, once a year we had to document every single song that was played on our station for a week and submit it to a few different places...not sure if all stations do this either.

Answer 2

The record companies are members of ASCAP and BMI.  ASCAP and BMI collect fees from stations for playing songs and distribute the money back to the composers, artists and producers.  The "middle men" monitor and require stations to report what music is played and how often.  They do send out people to audit the station to make sure the records are correct and that they have submitted the proper fees.

I know, I've been audited.

Answer 3

Yeas ago we had to keep a log of every song we played once a year - what a pain. Now it's mostly automated by MediaBase and other companies. A signal is encoded into the music and picked up by monitors all over the country. Then it's reported to anyone who wants to subscribe: including labels, artists and licensing authorities like ASCAP & BMI.

And once again, I'll gently correct the other answerer. ASCAP, BMI & SESAC collect royalties only for writers and publishers, NOT labels or artists. They get their money from sales - that's why the big push against illegal downloading and file sharing.

http://www.mediabase.com/WebLogon/WebLog...

-a guy named duh