Regardless of genre, radio airplay is still one of the key steps of marketing a band. It creates awareness and drives sales, and hopefully finds fans.  Of course, being a metal band creates interesting waters to navigate through.

Iron Thrones received a radio promotion campaign as part of winning the No Label Needed contest and series.  On a marketing level, radio promotion compliments a PR campaign very nicely.  It’s all part of the puzzle to see a band online or in print and then to be able to hear the songs on the radio.

The first obvious hurdle is to find out which radio stations play metal.  There is only one 24-hour radio station that plays metal, but there are plenty of college and commercial radio stations that play metal in blocks. Commercial stations will usually have one show per week, like KROX/Austin, for example.  College radio stations may have block shows, include metal in their regular programming, or both. And of course, there are national outlets, like SiriusXM’s “Hard Attack” and cable service Music Choice that play metal all the time as well.

Similar to a PR campaign, you need to know who your fanbase is and be available to them.  Metalheads know where to find music – whether it’s on on the internet, magazines, clubs or the radio.

Getting your music played on the radio isn’t an easy task, but it’s one that you can take into your own hands by learning who the DJ’s and music directors are in your town.  You can find out as easily as going into shows or calling the radio station.  Everything starts in your home market.  For Iron Thrones these stations would be commercial stations like KXXR (93X) and college stations like KFAI and WMCN

As you tour the next best step is to promote your band in the markets you’re playing.  Club promoters can often help as they work with many of these radio stations to promote their shows. In addition to attempting to get airplay, you can also try to do an interview to promote an upcoming show and possibly give away tickets. As with every facet of promotion, every fan you make from promoting yourself at radio should come with you on your career as a band.

In the interest of  full disclosure, Metal Insider’s parent company, The Syndicate, has had a radio promotion division for over 12 years and uses all of the techniques described above.

Headbangers’ Brawl is a weekly column where Metal Insider’s Bram and Zach take a moment to debate and analyze two opposing sides of a topical issue occurring in the world of metal and/or the music industry.

Hits Daily Double is reporting based on one day sales that Avenged Sevenfold’s new album Nightmare is estimated to sell between 160,000 to 175,000 in its first week and is a strong contender to beat out Eminem to claim the top of the charts. But we’re not debating the band’s deserving success in the first edition of our new column Headbangers’ Brawl. Rather, Bram and I will be going head to head to discuss what we think are the main reasons for Avenged Sevenfold’s extraordinary sales.

Zach: Avenged Sevenfold are one of my favorite bands of all time, and would like to think that it’s the music that drew out the fans. However, I can’t help to think that the untimely death of drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan had a hand in the album doing so well. While the single “Nightmare” has been well received, it didn’t actually premiere online until May 18 (and the video for said song didn’t make its debut until two weeks ago). The band has only done two concerts so far, and both of them were within this past week (the only major touring they have planned is this year’s Uproar Festival). With such little promotion done so far, I have to believe that their recent tragedy has made either their loyal fans make an extra effort to purchase the album or has attracted new fans.

Bram: Yeah, that’s probably got something to do with it. It’s the same reason a lot of people went to see The Crow, and the reason Biggie Smalls did so well with Life After Death being released two weeks after he died (wow, child of the ’90s much?). But I think their current fill-in drummer might have had something to do with it too. Dream Theater fans are pretty much geeks, and I mean that in a good way. If they’re not hanging out at a Guitar Center doing sweep pentatonics and paradiddles, they’re out supporting their favorite musicians’ endeavors. The last Dream Theater album sold 40,000 its first week. I’ve got to imagine some of the 160,000 that buy the album next week will be Mike Portnoy fans that never would have thought about buying an Avenged Sevenfold record `til now. You’ve heard the album, do you think the musical growth (or lack thereof) is pushing new people to buy the album?

Zach: I have heard the album, and will openly say that I love it. I’d also say that it’s a major step forward from their 2007 self-titled release (though City Of Evil remains as one of my all time favorite albums). However, I admit that Nightmare probably won’t convert listeners who never cared for the band. Hence why I feel that though Mike Portnoy may have attracted a few prog-nerds who were jamming to Rush’s “YYZ” in their basement before going out to buy the album, I can’t imagine it made too much of a difference. Avenged Sevenfold is a band many either love or hate. As much as I (a lover) was impressed with Nightmare, I ‘m not sure it’s an album that will win over haters. Avenged Sevenfold’s loyal fans are just that: loyal. Many hardcore fans felt extreme pain from The Rev’s passing. The album probably would have been a success either way, but the heart ache fans have been feeling has made them even more supportive of the band.

Bram: Well either way, this is a win for Avenged Sevenfold, Dream Theater, Metal, and pretty much everyone but Eminem. No one’s going to mistake me for the world’s biggest A7X fan, but Waking The Fallen was an amazing album. Since then, I feel like they’ve just kind of coasted, but they’ve gotten even more popular. And make no mistake, they’re a metal band. The dual guitar harmonies, musicality, and overall vibe of the band is way beyond the generic goat-rock that most active rock radio plays. And for any band to sell more than their previous album in this day and age, it’s a minor miracle. The last Avenged album didn’t even top 95,000, so if it sells what Hits thinks it might, everyone wins.

It’s the last thing you’d want to be faced with during an already stressful period of time: You’re less than an hour away from show time, you still need to warm up and all of a sudden there’s a last minute interview you weren’t prepared for. But nevertheless, Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner took the time to chat with us during the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Fest’s stop in Camden, NJ this past weekend. As he warmed up for the show, he discussed the band’s new live DVD and how owning your own label isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, especially with how bad the industry is doing.

In the Fall, Shadows Fall asked fans to help get you guys on Mayhem Fest using Twitter or Facebook, and here you guys are now! How has the response been?

The response on the tour so far has just been amazing actually. The shows have been great. The crowds have been great. We’ve been meeting a lot of kids at the signings afterwards and it’s been a lot of fun. Obviously we thank the fans tremendously for helping get us on here. We actually had a little incident yesterday that we just found out about with someone who had something to do with the tour package in some way shape or form in St. Louis and with someone who helped get us somewhere with this. They were supposed to have tickets and passes, and something went down. Our tour manager didn’t know what was up, and they ended up driving five and a half hours for nothing. So now today we all feel like shit. We got to do something good for these people, so we’re going to make a $1,000 pack of merch and send it to them. In good faith, it wasn’t our fault. We know that without the fans, we’re nobody.

It’s been about a year since the band created your own record label, Everblack Industries. How has the experience been so far?

I can’t really give an honest answer to that question because we haven’t seen any difference in anything as far as, like we’re still broke (laughing). So I don’t know if starting our own label was the right idea for this business. It just seems like every business model that we come up with we fall short in some way shape or form. I think it would be a great thing if we were a little bit bigger of a band that sold enough units. The problem is that nobody buys records anymore, and when you’re trying to base a business model off what you think you’re going to sell, you have to remember that what you sold two years ago you’re going to probably sell a third of now. It makes it really tough when everybody has to continue making a living out of this. So we’ll see. (more…)

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week.
This week’s biggest metal debut comes from newcomers Black Veil Brides, coming in at #36 and selling over 10,000 copies in its first week. Their debut full length album was produced by none other than Ozzy Osbourne bassist Blasko (whose Mercenary Management also happens to manage the band). Needless to say, whether you’re familiar with the band or not (we’re not), this is an extremely impressive debut.

Notable Debuts:

Black Veil Brides, We Stitch These Wounds (Standby) #36, 10,600 sold
You can get a taste of the band by checking out their new video for “Perfect Weapon.” Our first impression? Kinda like H.I.M. if they were a little more screamo.

The Acacia Strain, Wormwood (Prosthetic) #66, 6,300 sold
The Mass-core favorites seem to be making a big impact on the Cool Tour.

Impending Doom, There Will Be Violence (Facedown) #123, 3,800 sold
Good first week as the band prepares to hit the road on the Thrash and Burn Tour.

Lillian Axe, Deep Red Shadows (Love & War) 700 sold
Though he doesn’t sing on the New Orleans hard rockers’ new album, the band has just recruited ex-Metal Church singer Ronny Munroe to replace singer Derrick LeFerve.
(more…)

You’ve got the t-shirts, the toys, the pinball machine, the condoms and maybe even the coffin. What other KISS product could you possibly want? If you respond saying a KISS themed LED HD TV, well first I’d have to ask you why? Then I’d reveal that your dreams, as weird as they may be, have come true.

KISS has announced the release of the limited edition KISS LED television. This HDTV features KISS’ logo embossed on each side of the screen and comes in three sizes: 32”, 40” and 46”. Prices range from $818.88 to $1,388.88 (with an additional shipping fee of $375 if you live outside the United States), and is limited to only 15,000 pieces. If you’re tired of watching Family Jewels without a KISS logo coming on for eight seconds every time you turn on your TV, then you’re in luck. I mean, who hasn’t been watching TV and thinking that they’re not rocking every night and partying every day enough? Now you’ll be able to both without taking your eyes off the screen.

You can purchase and find out more information on this highly expensive collector’s item at the kisshdtv.com.