For the Western industry, radio is a powerful tool for finding new music. The radio airwaves here represent a kind of ladder, which you can climb by starting at one of the steps (in theory).
Commercial radio
Corporate property, broadcasting mostly pop stars, Top 40 hit makers and other mainstream. Various indie bands are occasionally found on the air of an average commercial station, and those are only allowed into rotation if the band has built up a large fan base or has been picked up by other stations (which is the obvious way to get into the rotation of such stations).
University radio station
Combines features of a public radio station, online radio and indie radio. Belongs to universities and serves as a training ground for future generations of broadcasters, where hosts and DJs practice their skills. These stations are much more likely to play independent music.
Non-commercial and community stations
These are public stations that typically support indie music (e.g. Think NPR, BBC, CBC in Canada). This is where the target audience for non-commercial music resides, as listeners of such stations are people who spend money on something they love and appreciate.
Satellite radio stations
Owned by various satellite broadcasting companies. For example, SiriusXM broadcasts not only music, but also various talk shows, sports and news programs, and provides subscribers with access to Pandora, Spotify and iHeartRadio.
Internet Radio
Internet radios should not be forgotten either. Most of them have a very small and useless audience, but it’s worth a try – after rotating on a dozen of these radio stations, you’ll feel a little more confident when communicating with representatives of larger radio stations.
To get on one of the radio stations, you will need to establish contact with the managers of these stations, music directors or program producers. Finding their contacts is not so difficult: you can look in the section on the sites of stations, and if such information is not found on the site, then use Google by searching the database of radio stations. The main thing that you should do before throwing your letters at the radio is to listen to its air – this way you will understand how much you fit the format of the station and how much you want your music to be played on the air of the selected radio.