First of all, we love you and your desire to chase your passion/dreams; we think you’re awesome! That being said and just being real, we don’t want to get your hopes up. The math alone prevents The River from being able to play every song people send our way, and although we sift through as many music submissions as possible, the large quantity that our station receives on a regular basis unfortunately means we just aren’t able to listen to every single submission sent our way.
Music Submissions – What to Expect
The following was created to explain the process and heart behind how The River addresses music submitted from local artists.
However, we DO listen to as many as we can and we promise this: if we think you’re a potential fit for what The River audience is wanting from us, we will not rest until we connect with you! If you do not hear back from us, we wish you the best.
If that information above wasn’t nearly enough for you – keep reading! Here are several FAQ’s we regularly get asked regarding music submissions and getting your song played on the radio.
How to Get on the Radio (or not):
1. Are we the right fit for your music? The River revolves around all varieties of Adult Contemporary styled music, from pop (For King & Country, Lauren Daigle, Danny Gokey), pop/rock (Zach Williams, Skillet, Switchfoot), pop/R&B (Tauren Wells, Austin French, Stars Go Dim), Contemporary (Casting Crowns, MercyMe, Chris Tomlin), Worship (Hillsong, Elevation, Bethel) – and it’s all faith based! In industry terms, The River is considered a Christian Adult Contemporary station. If your song doesn’t line up with these kind of sounds, you may not be a good fit for what our audience comes to us for. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t awesome!
2. Production quality: Not only does The River compete with other top notch, high quality radio stations but, thanks to the Internet, our competition is global! Quality is key. 90% of the songs sent to us have great, talented people (like you!) performing them. But the talent gets diminished when surrounded by production that sounds less than professional. There’s a reason the biggest names in music spend GIANT chunks of cash on the right producers and tools. Great production will help you rise above the pack, and anything less risks you not standing out. Therefore, we don’t play music that lacks excellent production.
3. If The River chooses to add your song to our rotation: We’ll need a high quality .wav file. (Don’t worry about the .wav file unless we ask for it; we just wanted to let you know it might be needed.) MP3’s and links are great for screening (we love and prefer them for that) but after going through our audio chain, MP3’s, M4A (iTunes files), etc. can get too compressed to sound good when coming out on the other side and into a listener’s car radio, earbuds, etc. If it helps, this article goes in depth about why The River tries to avoid anything other than .wav files.
4. Know this: If your song doesn’t get on The River, that does not mean you aren’t talented and that we don’t love your music. It simply means it doesn’t fit our current song catalog. We’re still cheering for you and hoping God uses you for His kingdom, through your music or your many other gifts He’s given you! Also know that radio spins can be a great tool for some artists but not every artist is cut out for radio or for the style of The River radio. Think of radio this way: it might not be your best first step; radio is the final destination for the absolute best music around.
5. Unfortunately, we cannot make any guarantees. Most weeks The River receives a VERY large number of songs, and our small team only has so many ears and so much time. Due to the high volume of music we receive, we cannot promise reviews, replies, or on-air spins. If we want to play your song, or if we have any questions, you’ll hear from us! If you don’t hear back from us, no hard feelings.
After all that, if you understand the odds and you’re still in it to win it, send us the ONE song of yours that fits The River best to our Music Director. If you’ve already done this, there is no need to do it again, as sending multiple submissions only bogs down our email response times.
