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Writing to artists
From WWR
Wheatheads often contribute to Whole Wheat Radio by writing personalized emails to indie artists and record labels asking them to send CDs to us for airplay. This is absolutely the best way for artists to find out about us and for them to submit music. It means that the artist has taken the time, trouble and financial burden of sending a physical CD. Although it wouldn't stand up in a court-of-law (whatever that is) it also tends to indicate that the artist is aware that we don't pay airtime royalties and is okay with that, understanding that we provide links and information about them which no other site integrates so deeply into the webcast experience.
Not sure where to find great indie artists to write? Just check out CD Baby and start listening to sound samples in a genre you like. You'll have a list in no time. My personal experience is that it's always best to go to the artists website (not their CD Baby page), find their email address, and write to that address. Writing through the CD Baby email page tends to make it look like you're trolling through CD Baby looking for CDs. The magic key is making sure the artist knows you really took the time to get familiar with them and aren't just sending a mass email to 1,000s of artists (which they likely get every day).
Sample email
Below is a suggested email to use as a template to contact artists. Swipe over it, paste it into your email program, personalize it, and send it to the artist. If you want to send a CC to Whole Wheat Radio, that's cool but it's not absolutely necessary. You're representing all of us involved in Whole Wheat ... so do us proud and use your spelling checker!
Please remember that the more personalized your email is, the better chance you have of getting the artist to actually send a CD. Mentioning the name of the CD is a great idea. Artists get a ton of junk email ... and they are pretty adept at figuring at which ones are the standard 'form' junk emails. Having something personalized to the artist on the email is effective in keeping it out of the trash bin.
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Hi ______! I listen to an independent music webcast called Whole Wheat Radio (http://www.wholewheatradio.org) from Talkeetna, Alaska. Whole Wheat Radio is a small, labor-of-love effort. One of the things they ask is for listener volunteers to contact independent artists and ask them to send CDs for airplay. That's why I'm contacting you. As a fan, I would love to hear and request your music on Whole Wheat Radio. That can and will happen if you send a CD to the little cabin studio in Talkeenta, Alaska where the webcast originates. ______ THIS IS A GREAT PLACE TO NAME THE CDS YOU'D LIKE THEM TO SEND BY NAME_____ Because Whole Wheat Radio is funded solely from listener donations, they cannot pay any type of airplay royalties. Instead, every time one of your songs plays, a prominent link to your website (along with a photo) displays so listeners can buy CDs directly from you. If you sell CDs on either CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.com) or Amazon (http://www.amazon.com), a link also shows that goes directly to your sales page. If you use Musi-Cal (http://www.musi-cal.com) to post your gig schedule, a link appears that listeners can click on to see where you're playing live. Whole Wheat Radio also tries to feature every artist as an "Artist Of The Day". This gives listeners a chance to focus in on a new artist. Listeners can mark anything that plays as a 'Favorite', making it easy for them to request it in the future. A lot of statistics (how often you've been heard, requested and marked by listeners as a 'Favorite') are kept and freely available to you anytime at http://www.wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/Artist_statistics . There are more details and beneficial features for indie artists listed on their webpage at http://www.wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/Information_for_artists. Whole Wheat Radio has been webcasting since August 2002 and has recorded over 1,000,000 'listens' so far. Whole Wheat Radio isn't huge (and doesn't plan to be) so it's unlikely they can contribute significantly to your pocketbook or fame ... but I can promise your music will be heard by the kind of audience that really sits down and listens. If they like what they hear, they buy CDs, tell their friends about you and come to your gigs. Thanks for taking the time to check out Whole Wheat Radio. If you don't have time to surf over but want a quick listen, the slow-speed (dialup) broadcast is at: http://64.62.252.134:2670/listen.pls and the high-speed (cable/DSL) broadcast is at: http://64.62.252.134:2680/listen.pls. I urge you to listen for several hours in order to get a real feel for the station as it changes based on whatever is being spotlighted that. I hope to be listening to your music on Whole Wheat Radio soon! Warmly, Your Name ___________________
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If you'd like to provide other examples of effective emails to send to artists, please add them here.
