Niall Toner and Airplay Direct

Airplay Direct had recently announced an expansion into the international market for their popular and successful radio delivery service. The company now services 6,700 stations worldwide in more than 100 countries, with close to 30,000 artist and record label members making their music available there for download to programmers.

One international artist who has used this service to great effect in Irishman Niall Toner who has used Airplay Direct – along with New Cuts Of Bluegrass – to promote his wonderful Bill Monroe song tribute to radio in North America and Europe.

Well, now the recording of the song has proved to be so popular that it has hit the No. 1 spot on the Bluegrass/Folk Air Play Direct Radio Indicator Charts.

Understandably, Toner showed a keen interest in the progress of the single and was delighted with its success ….

“I had, as most performers would, been following my music’s progress on Airplay Direct with great interest, since we released our three CDs, and the new single, William Smith Monroe, in the USA on July 4th. When we first began to make a small impression in the lower reaches of those charts, I was honored to see that I was in very good company there, and most of the names I saw had been idols of mine from afar for years. Then, on Monday August 29th when I checked the Bluegrass Chart, and saw our name in the Number One spot, my heart almost burst with pride, combined with a great sense of satisfaction.

I have always known that we were doing something right by sticking to our philosophy of performing only our own original songs, but I could hardly have, in my wildest dreams, seen the day when I would be at number one with a song of mine dedicated to the Father Of Bluegrass.”

As a result of this success, Toner has been booked to showcase at IBMA’s World of Bluegrass next month and to appear at the Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival. Additionally, he has been invited to give a talk to students at East Tennessee State University on his techniques for writing songs in the bluegrass style.

Perhaps Airplay Direct founder and CEO Robert Weingartz should use Niall’s example for his next promotional campaign?

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.