Where do radio stations get their music?
All of the above and – some stations buy their own, just so they’re not beholden to the record labels. But most get promo copies from the labels or management companies – or independent promoters hired to “push” a certain song. We used to call them cut-corners or punched copies because the packaging had a diagonal corner clipped off, or a hole was punched in the disc somewhere (yes, other than the middle). Now, many of the singles are just downloaded directly into the station’s hard drive. And there are services that will keep the smaller stations supplied with current music in their format if they’re not big enough or important enough to report airplay that would affect chart position.
