HARMONY PUSH TO THE TOP!

[searam]

What Janice and Somewhereupinmichigan (hope I spelled them correctly!) said is true. We have a window of opportunity both in requesting airplay, which will further sales, and requesting stocking of the CD, which will move the CD up the charts. It is a "double-edged-sword". One cannot work without the other. What we are accomplishing is both. Look, I want Gord's new work to become the 21st century standard, which it will. I am only trying to get us all working toward the same goal, and I see that it is happening.
Thanks to all for the great ideas and hard work done to make HARMONY rise even further, Record companies do it, so can we!
Sean

[SilverHeels]

quote:I am only trying to get us all working toward the same goal, and I see that it is happening.
Thanks to all for the great ideas and hard work done to make HARMONY rise even further, Record companies do it, so can we!
Sean[/B]

I just hope everybody concerned is grateful.

[This message has been edited by SilverHeels (edited May 26, 2004).]

[SilverHeels]

quote:Originally posted by johnfowles:
I have now sent the following e-mail to my favo(u)rite local radio station


I had first found that they have a request page at:- http://www.1067litefm.com/requests.html
so requested my fave Harmony track Inspiration Lady
They also have a "Contact Lite fm Programming" page at:- http://www.1067litefm.com/contactus.html
on which I pasted the follwing text
"HI Programming at 1067LiteFM
I am an expatriate Brit and ex-resident of Montreal now living within your broadcast area and have for several years listened to your generally excellent "lite" music and the series of usually nicely varied sets of "lite songs" from which I have been made aware of several interesting previously unknown (to me) artists. I said "generally" because to my mind there is one glaring omission in the roster of artists that you play. I admit to being heavily biased but for 35 years now I have been a devotee of the great Canadian Troubadour Gordon Lightfoot,yet in over three years I have yet to hear any of his prodigious output on your station. not even such past hits as If You Could Read My Mind or any others not even a cover version. I have just submitted a request for what I believe will be the first single from his brand new 20th album of original material "Harmony", produced under unusual circumstances from demos he had made just before nearly dying from a serious aneurism in September 2002 and finished by his band while he was flat on his back in hospital. He now has a new Canadian label Linus Entertainment who would no doubt be most pleased to send you a DJ copy of the CD. If you visit their site:- http://www.linusentertainment.com/ar...n/gordon.shtml
there is a link to a delightful video of the song I have just requested "Inspiration Lady".I look forwards to hearing this on my radio and seeing Gordon's name in your playlist where he so rightly belongs
Yours sincerely
John Fowles" Note Sean i have an "s" on the end not "r"!!

feel free to use any of my text in your promotions



John,

<<He now has a new Canadian label Linus Entertainment who would no doubt be most pleased to send you a DJ copy of the CD. If you visit their site:- >>

This bit intrigues me. From my past experience with record companies, DJ copies are sent out to ALL radio stations in time for release date of record. How else will the record get played over the air????????

[vlmagee]

quote:Originally posted by SilverHeels:

This bit intrigues me. From my past experience with record companies, DJ copies are sent out to ALL radio stations in time for release date of record. How else will the record get played over the air????????


No, DJ copies are sent out selectively to stations based on format. The big record companies probably send out huge numbers when they are pushing their multi-million selling artists, but even they thin it out significantly for someone whose records don't sell all that well. For the smaller companies and independents, the lists are smaller still. With stations coming and going, and changing formats all the time, most record companies have pretty poor lists.

When I was doing this for previous Lightfoot CDs, I was often told by DJs that they COULDN'T get a copy of a CD; in a couple of cases, I bought one and sent it myself, as did some other Lightheads (Jenney, for one). With the Rhino releases, I would contact Thane Tierney when I heard from a DJ who didn't have the CD, and Thane would give his name and station to the people who handle this.

Although the cost to the record company is much less than to us, they make a business decision based on costs vs expected sales. Even in the case of a Norah Jones, I can't imagine that they sent her recent CD to hip-hop stations.


------------------
Valerie Magee

Visit my business site at mageenet.biz and Cathy Cowette's web site at cathycowette.com

[This message has been edited by vlmagee (edited May 26, 2004).]

[germangordfan]

How cool is that - first reply from a very well known Minneapolis Radio station! Let's keep going!

Hi Claudia:

Glad to hear you're a fan of the show. Thanks for listening.

I haven't seen the new Gordon Lightfoot CD, but will take a look in the new release section of the station music library. If I can find it, I'll play something for you.

Thanks again for the kind words,

Jackson Buck
KFAI-FM

[Auburn Annie]

I got a note from Peter at XMLive that he hadn't yet seen a copy of the CD (I explained there were only two live cuts out of 11) and referred him to Nanci at Linus.

[searam]

Great! Good going, Annie! This is becoming very productive! I have to say that Gord should be proud of this!
Sean

[germangordfan]

I just got a mail from Peter from xlive as well. He said they're just playing live stuff and I also told him about the two live songs on that CD. He's probably quite amazed by the sudden interest in Gordon...

If Gordon only knew about this...It probably would give him a good laugh and he would be happy to have so devoted fans!

[SomewhereupinMichigan]

Here's another possibility...quite often my wife falls to sleep listening to a nationally syndicated show on one of our local stations called "Delilah." You can call in requests at 1-888-6DELILAH between 7 p.m. and Midnight (ET, I think). For those who are not familiar with the show it is a soft, light rock format and the host, Delilah, mixes in a lot of comment and inspirational chit-chat. It seems to me that Gord's Inspiration Lady is a perfect fit for her format. So tonight I tried to phone in a request for it but, of course, ended up getting a busy signal. I imagine this is more often the case than not BUT if many of us were to start calling in until we scored some contacts, this would be a pretty good way to get Gord back in the national limelight...yes?

The store that I found Harmony is called; FYE. The stores that told me they didn't know anything about it are; MEDIA PLAY, and CIRCUIT CITY. On a positive note,I was online at ; CD UNIVERSE ,and they have Gordon's Harmony listed as the number three most currently popular album to buy, and they have them too. Randy

[Janice]

quote:Originally posted by SomewhereupinMichigan:
Nanci and Janice are both right. It will take a mix of both approaches to make an impact. Having spent a part of my past life in both commercial radio and retail, I encourage both efforts to go forward. The element that drives what a lot of stores stock is what they see climbing the charts. To move Harmony up the charts we need to have both airplay and sales.

I didn't mean to imply that it was an "either" "or" situation. Nanci said, "...but concentrating on retail is a more beneficial cause..." and I just wanted to point out that the push for air play is just as much a focus on retail as asking your favorite music store to stock the CD, where as she seemed to indicate that it was not. As someone said, the two actions go hand in hand to sell CDs, which is the goal.

[searam]

This is great news from everyone! Being new to the group, I am so amazed and proud of what everyone is doing! I will ask Nanci to tell Gord about all of this. I wish Gord every success that he has earned, and congratulations to everyone for this outstanding effort!!! Hats off to us all!
Sean

[brink]

Three stations in the "HIGH COUNTRY" in Colorado have played the new songs. Two of them End of All Time and one No Hotel they thought the story and song were great.

AHHHHHH . . . that's what happened to Delilah! She used to have an early evening slot on one of the L.A. AC stations. She had a very sweet voice.


quote:Originally posted by SomewhereupinMichigan:
Here's another possibility...quite often my wife falls to sleep listening to a nationally syndicated show on one of our local stations called "Delilah." You can call in requests at 1-888-6DELILAH between 7 p.m. and Midnight (ET, I think).

[searam]

I have been here in L.A. for two months now, and I am not familiar with this jock. Violet, can you think of the station?
Sean

A list of the AC and Hot AC stations in the U.S. Most of them have a URL link if you click on the call letters. Not all of them, ahem - KOST, have a way to relay email requests, but most of them do.
http://www.radioandrecords.com/Exclu...ry/ac_home.htm

I don't think she's still in the market. I believe, don't quote me, she used to be at KOST but that was years ago. But then I haven't had access to 95% of the L.A. market stations for over three years now, so who knows, I'm not current on who is where these days. Used to be you could name a name and I could name the call letters.

quote:Originally posted by searam:
I have been here in L.A. for two months now, and I am not familiar with this jock. Violet, can you think of the station?
Sean

[brink]

Wasn't there something about Linus and Warners being partners? If that is the case why isn't Warners busy in the US publicizing Harmony here? There needs to be more of a push than what was done for Songbook.

[Auburn Annie]

I got an automated response from Sirius (like XM satellite radio) after I requested HARMONY for their new "Love" station - the request has been forwarded to their streaming djs.

[brink]

The Harmony CD is a regular play on the local station. Seems they like End of All Time best. This morning there was a little chatting about the liner notes and what happened to Gord. They also mentioned the new video.
dang spelling!

[This message has been edited by brink (edited May 28, 2004).]

[Auburn Annie]

Just checked Barnes & Noble at the Carousel Center (mall) in Syracuse - they have 11 copies of HARMONY on the shelf. They've always carried at lot of Lightfoot.

[johnfowles]

Apropos the various comments in this and other topics about getting publicity for Harmony and whether and by who it might be released/distributed a in the UK and getting airplay/ contacting radio stationsI have just discovered that some obviously undeserving philistine joker from "Darkest somerset" has put up his/her promo copy up fotr auction on ebay at:- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...015944490&rd=1
Perhaps silverheels could contact CNR (who I think she said were the UK distributors) tp ascertain whoever/whatever they are or are tryng to be to try with a view to discovering which if any sensible recipients they managed to send promo copies to who knows maybe even a radio station or a disc jockey in the UK or two??




------------------
My Gordon Lightfoot webring
starts at
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/lightfoot

Two radio stations have mentioned Gord's new album Harmony now in my area of Northern Indiana.However, they still haven't played any songs from it,just the old stuff like Sundown and Beautiful, And If you could read my mind. At the local music store they did put more on the shelf and more of some of Gord's other albums too. I can't get enough of listening to this new album,it is wonderful!!! Randy

[Auburn Annie]

Maybe we should adopt Warner's new way of getting attention for Ron Sexsmith - giving away free CDs of 2 sample songs. See http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968867495754
for the story.

Excerpt:
The record company that recently released the Toronto singer/songwriter's sixth album, has a theory about Sexmith that lead to the giveaway: "We felt that there is a large constituency of people out there that would love Ron Sexsmith if they ever f---ing heard him," says slightly exasperated Steve Waxman, director of publicity at Warner Music Canada.

"We love Ron. Everybody who knows Ron loves Ron. The next logical thing is to spread the love, as it were."

The CD giveaway is a way to help that untapped constituency out there connect the dots.

"A lot of people know his name — you always reading about him in the papers — but most people haven't actually heard him," Waxman said.

[BerndFrank]

I like to help to get Gordon Nr 1.

Bernd from Germany

[This message has been edited by BerndFrank (edited May 31, 2004).]