Current Music Stations Play Current Hit Songs by Current Hit Artists
The ground shifted. Radio is no longer the music discovery medium. We don't break the hits. One thing that hasn't changed is successful music radio stations follow their listeners and Plays the Hits. The first week of April 1965, The Beatles held the Top Five positions on the Billboard Chart. They had nine more songs on the Hot 100 that week. One of the very first formatting rules for Rock 'n Roll radio was: Only one song an hour by any artist. What to do? One NYC station began promoting: "You are never more than 15 minutes away from another Beatles Song!!"
When an Artist explodes, music radio must pay attention. When any new, unique, unexpected song blasts to the tops of the streaming charts, music directors should pay special attention. As always, successful music radio stations follow the lead of the listeners.
There is some incredible music being created with the help of A.I. and Current Hits radio programmers should pay attention. Let's keep in mind there is a human behind the best of these creations. There is a human that that sparked their creation. I love some of these songs; they turn me on, they twist my crank, they make me smile and I sing along. No, I don't like knowing that Bertha May Lightening and Eddie Dalton and A.I. Ella aren't real. But it's OK. I'm comforted in knowing they were created by a person with an actual soul who had the ideas and gave the instructions to put them together. I am truly amazed by it all.
UPDATE: About the legality of playing A.I. music on the radio. After recording Drop 26, I did a little more investigation about any legal exposure a station might possibly incur by playing A.I.-generated music. At this point in time the only problem would be mis-identifying a song as being by an actual artist. I found a great song on YouTube by "Ella Langley /featuring Willie Nelson". The gal sounded quite like Ella. The guy sounded like Chris Stapleton. That one got pulled down about a week later. If the creator hadn't labeled it with actual artist names, I expect it would still be on YouTube for viewing. The bottom line is: if you play any A.I. songs, just clearly identify the song for what it is. If I were to play that Ella/Willie tune, I'd always intro or backsell it as: "A. I Ella" or some-such. If as song is great, if it touches them, Listeners don't care who's the singer.
