Gordon Hastings is president of ghhMANAGEMENT. He is the founder of the Broadcasters Foundation of America and the former president of Katz Radio and Katz Television. He is a founder of the Radio Mercury Awards and the Broadcasters Foundation of America Celebrity Golf Tournament.
There is flood of articles being written regarding the radio industry’s long fought battle over performance rights. The outcome is pending.
In the midst of this all-consuming issue, there is a reasonable question bubbling below the radar. Should the radio industry form a consortium to move directly into the business of publishing and distributing music?
If you are a believer in crowdsourcing, the basis of a business model is already established. Combine the radio industry’s web presence with the power of over-the-air promotion to encourage the production and uploading of new music. Allow the crowd to prioritize artists through an online voting system, pick the potential hits and then the radio consortium or company in collaboration with the artists enter a business arrangement to produce and distribute the final product. Let the crowd separate the hits from the duds.
Jeff Howe, contributing editor of Wired magazine in his book Crowdsourcing, Why The Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Businessadds an additional crowd concept called crowdfunding. Crowdfunding would directly offer those that have chosen a particular band or artist in the crowdsourcing process the opportunity to take a small financial stake in the careers of the musicians. If 100,000 Web followers of the band invested $50 each that is $50,000 toward recording and producing what could be a new hit record, artist or group. Outlandish idea? Not at all, it is already being done in the fledgling crowdfunding film business.
Radio of course brings an additional dynamic promotional element to the table in its nationwide distribution and promotion system through over the air broadcast stations. HD Radio stations, all in need of programming concepts, allows for even more specialized exposure of a wide range of crowdsourced specialty music genres.
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