A community of indie webcasters, podcasters, club DJs, music bloggers, and renegade disc jockeys on the terrestial level that are looking for new promotional avenues (outside of the conventional means) to receive new music to play on their program. Independent music programmers can also discuss new ideas of obtaining music and the future of radio in general.

This group will also act as a resource for indie artists looking for DJs and programs that will more likely play their music compared to their chances on commercial and college radio.

Hell, this group could be a virtual record pool if we want it to be.

For any artist looking to get their music heard, obtaining airplay is now a required promotional effort. However, radio promotion is very expensive and is often paid and performed without guaranteed results. DIY radio promotion requires hours of stuffing envelopes and hundreds of dollars in postage and lost inventory, while you play phone tag with music directors who are too focused on the CMJ top 30 artists.

The truth is that today, more than ever before, artists can be less reliant on a music director's decision and more in touch with people with the true empowerment to play what they like and not what they have to. And we are not just talkng about basement pirate radio DJs. We're talking about personalities that have the ability to break an artist to a core of loyal listeners. Infact, many podcasters have a listenership than is many times more than that of your average college DJ. The podcasting revolution is taking off and indie artists are the first to take advantage because the majors haven't figured out a way to license their music to podcast programmers.

You have got to ask where your friends are discovering new music at and how can you get there.

Podcasters and many webcasters starting out might also face challenges with the lack of licensable music to broadcast. That obstacle will also be discussed quite a bit in this group.

I believe that reguardless of what specific sub-genre of music...reguardless of if you are a club DJ, an individual producing a podcast, a DJ at a college/public radio station, or just someone who programs a Live365 or Shoutcast station in their spare time, we all have one thing in common; we all did not get into this so we can mirror the same playlists we hear on commercial radio (or any other broadcast source). We all want our little thing that we do to be unique...different than the next guy.
One can only hope that with the growth of satellite, Internet, and HD FM radio, our professional broadcasters will feel the same and deliver more unique programming.

~ Vil Vodka (prez/CEO Vodka Tonic Media)