About

Beetlewood Bands is a poorly-named group devoted to getting airplay and publicity for Prince George's independent music community by having supporters request one specific song by one specific artist for a set amount of time (I'm thinking two weeks, but if anyone has suggestions, let me know).

Currently, the campaign is targeted at getting songs played on CBC Radio 3, because a. it is a national station devoted to promoting independent Canadian music and b. it has a variety of ways in which listeners can program what it plays (for example, its countdown show is based in part on listener requests; every week one "Track of the Day" is chosen by audience members; it occasionally has entire blocks of programing made up of requests).

But can it work?
I think so, yes. A lot of the music being produced in Prince George is on par with what is being done in the rest of the country, but it doesn't get (much) national airplay when compared to bands from bigger cities. My guess is this is because we have a smaller built-in audience than cities like Vancouver and Montreal. Thus, if say 5% of a localized music community in Vancouver requests a song it translates into much bigger numbers than if 5% of Prince George fans do the same. One way to offset this is if the Prince George music community organizes itself better. This means that instead of everyone randomly voting for different songs at different times, we all vote for the same song during the same time period. Hypothetically, at least, this would translate into a greater chance of cracking the playlists.

We've seen what happens when the PG music fans mobilize with the crowning of Meow Records as the best music store in Canada. This got attention in media outlets from the CBC to the National Post to the Georgia Strait to the Calgary Sun. The next step should be to promote some of the bands found within this music community.

WHAT TO DO

CONTACT