Bluegrass Today is proud to announce a strategic alliance with AirPlay Direct, the premier online radio distribution service for labels and independent artists.
The company, founded by Robert and Lynda Weingartz, has found tremendous success in getting digital tracks directly to radio at no cost to programmers, and at a very low cost to artists. For dramatically less than mailing out CDs and promotional packages to radio, AirPlay Direct gets your music in front of 11,000 show hosts and program directors, and offers templates and a mail server at no additional charge that allow you to contact them directly. These stations exist for every imaginable style of music, in more than 90 countries around the world.
42,000 artists/label members are currently using the service to get their music to radio, as have publishing companies, radio promotion firms, and publicity and media relations outfits worldwide.
Our CEO, Terry Herd, speaks very highly of AirPlay Direct, a service he regularly employs in his other life as a successful syndicated DJ for his own show, Into The Blue, and for our weekly and monthly Airplay Charts.
“From the inception of Bluegrass Today, we’ve worked closely with AirPlay Direct to provide instant access to recordings for our chart reporting stations. Robert and Lynda’s industry leading dedication to providing the gold standard for music delivery to radio is unsurpassed, and we’re truly excited about tapping into their vast experience, as we move forward with development of the Bluegrass Today brand.”
Working together, the two companies will assist each other in promoting both brands, and working together in the future on a number of projects that will provide benefits to our readers, and to the companies that advertise with us, in addition to all the aspects of AirPlay Direct.
Lynda Weingartz shares our pride in this new agreement.
“This is a very special, on-going partnership for AirPlay Direct that has now grown to include a deep relationship with our boutique consulting division, Collective Evolution. There are some very cool projects we are developing together that will be introduced in the coming months.
The award-winning founders of Bluegrass Today, Terry Herd and John Lawless are a perfect example of what you can contribute to the growth of a global community if your intentions, heart and mind are true to the cause.”
Our first joint venture will be developing a new Bluegrass Today weekly airplay chart for Grassicana, music that isn’t really bluegrass, but which should appeal to Americana and acoustic music lovers as well as fans of progressive grass. Like our current charts, this one will poll radio hosts across the country and report what they are playing in this evolving musical format.
For the sake of the new chart, we are defining Grassicana as…
What is Grassicana? It is music that lies between the progressive sounds of bluegrass and the vast genre of Americana. While possessing a connection with bluegrass, it is defined as the “branches,” as opposed to the “roots” of bluegrass. Typically played with acoustic instruments traditional to bluegrass, it may also include drums and other instrumentation not always associated with bluegrass. More than instrumentation however, it is the style in which the music is played that ultimately defines the new genre of Grassicana.
Any DJs or programmers who would like to contribute to this new chart when it launches are invited to express your interest here.
Artists who would like to have their recent recordings considered for inclusion in our reporting survey should contact our business office here. Projects released within the past 18 months will be eligible.
More details coming soon!
