Over the last decade, we’ve always tried to remain on the cutting edge of technology for global airplay monitoring, internet indexing, tracklist locating and other tools and tips for finding your DJ supports and then where possible – collecting due royalties.
Trying to nail down exactly the who, when and how for DJ plays is not an easy job. There is no all-seeing-eye that enables us to find and process every time a DJ plays a record, so we have to do the best we can with the technology available today.
Below we have listed and detailed a series of utilities, services and tips that will get you closer to finding the plays on your promos with Reaktion.
Real Time Radio Tracking (WARM)
WARM is an acronym for World Airplay Radio Monitor. As this might give away, WARM monitors radio stations worldwide. More specifically, it is a powerful software that tracks radio plays of any song in real-time, using audio Fingerprint Technology and Music Recognition.
The technology behind WARM is based on audio fingerprints. Every song gets its own unique fingerprint which they match with the music playing on radio stations around the world, in real-time. The algorithm behind this is powered by MusicDNA.
This means that you can access the data on where and when a specific song has been played on the radio. In fact, right now they are monitoring more than 28,000 radio stations across the world. And they are constantly expanding their coverage.
Because the overwhelming majority of radio shows don’t ever make it online, let alone in a format that you’d be able to find using a text search online – WARM offers one of the best and most in-depth ways of monitoring your releases for global radio support.
WARM offers a tracking service for 3 Euros per track per month and is available here:
https://warmmusic.net
Royalty Trackers & International Licence Monitoring Tools
Licence monitoring such as ISRC codes are alphanumeric codes that act as a thumbprint for your music. If you do not already do so, you should ensure that all of your releases have one as without this, it is much more difficult for any global royalty collections service to do their job. Major trackers like the PRS in the UK will monitor everything from radio and festivals, right through to plays in commercial settings or in shopping stores. If you do not have an ISRC code and a tracker, it is incredibly difficult to find where your music is being played.
UK: PRS
USA: ASCAP & BMI
France: SACEM
Germany: GEMA
For other global Copyright Collectives:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_collective#In_countries
1001 Tracklists
Many DJs on Reaktion will have their tracklists posted on 1001 Tracklists either through their own uploads, managers or by the active community on the platform there. The site publishes tracklists from verified DJs only, so this is a great place to find supports, especially from the bigger name DJs. There is a search functionality at the top of the website where you can search for ‘tracks’.
Supports for lesser-known tracks on 1001Tracklists may take longer to show up on search as they have a verification process for DJs and Producers that do not have a history of support on tracklists from verified DJs.
You can find 1001 Tracklists here:
https://www.1001tracklists.com
Soundcloud
Mixes are back on Soundcloud after a long period of issues with copyright takedowns for radio shows and broadcast of content. This gives you another location where a potential support of a track can be located. If a Soundcloud user has uploaded a mix or show and included a tracklist in the upload text, a simple search on the site’s top menu of your artist name and release will render search results that include your release.
Google Alerts
One of the most powerful ways to locate a mention of your track in an online tracklist is to setup a Google Alert for the artist and song name. This will give you a rolling update from one of the world’s most powerful online indexing services.
Social Media
There are two ways to check for support of your release on Facebook/Instagram. The first one will come to you by the way of a DJ or radio show tagging you in a post. This is common practice. If you are tagged by a DJ or show, be sure to comment or share as they’ll remember the engagement and be a lot more likely to add your future releases to their arsenal.
Secondly there is a search bar on Meta platforms where you can search for all posts that are public using your artist name and track name as the search term. This will only show you public posts so there is always a good chance you’ll not see the full picture here as a lot of mix sharing groups are private and will not render in the public posts search bar.
Much like Facebook, there is both the tagging mechanism and a search bar in which you can search for mentions of your release that might direct you towards examples of tracklist support.
TikTok
TikTok has become an incredibly popular platform for music discovery, with many users creating videos and dances to popular songs. If you’re a producer or musician, it’s important to keep track of how your music is being used on the platform. One way to do this is by using TikTok Sounds, a feature that allows you to search for your songs and see all of the videos that have used them. This can help you identify which of your tracks are resonating with TikTok users and potentially go viral. By keeping tabs on the use of your music on TikTok, you can get a better sense of how to promote your music and potentially increase its exposure.
Shazam
Shazam won’t show you exactly where your release has been played, but it’s a tool we recommend that all users of Reaktion check after a promotion. If you see a sudden surge in Shazam searches, this is usually an indication of one or more major supports on national radio, an A-list DJ mix or show or at a large-scale event.
On The Reaktion Platform
Sounds obvious, but if you read through your comments, a lot of DJs mention exactly where they intend to support a track. You’re then a simple Google search away from finding the source and trying to trace the plays.
Read The Brackets
When we index the Reaktion DJ Pool we are constantly trying to update the database of profiles with information about where each DJ is a resident or regular. If you see the name of radio stations, promotions, events or other suggestive metrics, you can use those as tools to start a search to find evidence of plays.
Use The Social Media Buttons When Available
Some, but not all DJs on Reaktion add their direct link to their Facebook artist page on their account. You can see this If the image next to the comment has a blue ‘f” on the profile photo. If it’s there, you can click on this and it will take you directly to their Facebook where you may find what you’re looking for.
Remember – Perfectly Tracking DJs Is Impossible
Although making sure that you’re doing all of the above correctly (which you should), even this will only get you so far. There is absolutely no way to know every single play from every single DJ on a promotion. If a DJ plays your track at a show that is not setup for royalties monitoring, there is no way you’ll ever know. If a DJ plays your song on a radio that is not monitored and does not post it online, there is no way you’ll ever know. Even the likes of Mixcloud will not show you a simple search function for your track to see if it appears in a mix. If a DJ plays your song on a social media live stream and does not post a tracklist – again, there is absolutely no viable technology out there that will enable you to track this.
This is of course a frustration and can sometimes leave us with more questions than answers. When it comes to promoting a release, especially with something like Reaktion, the decision to make is it something that’s good for your release? We feel strongly that having your release distributed to thousands of tastemaker DJs is only doing your release good. If the choice is between thousands of tastemakers having your track in their inbox or not – we feel that Reaktion is the right move.
With the speed of technological evolution and a cultural focus on trying to get artists paid for their work, we hope to see better applications of monitoring all of this in the not-so-distant future.
Thanks and best of luck with your Reaktion promos.
