Can I Use Popular Music in my Radio Ad?

Before you dive into the world of using popular music in your radio ads, it’s essential to understand the ins and outs of licensing for commercial use. Here’s a concise guide:

Popular music—everyone knows it, and everyone loves to sing along. But is it worth paying out the ass for in your radio ads? Tons of people ask us if they can use a popular song or theme from a TV show/movie in their radio ad.

What Is Creative On Hold?

Drip…drip…drip…you need to find a handyman—and fast. You google who the best in town is and you’re given a list of reputable results. You call the first one that looks decent, curious about their pricing. Ring…ring…ring…you’re put on hold. Two scenarios can happen. One: You get a live stream of jazz music with the message “Thank you for holding, your call matters to us” interrupting the static-filled saxophone every 30 seconds. You hang up and call the next company after a couple minutes. Or two: You’re entertained by their creative on hold, featuring a story of how the founder picked up his first hammer at the age of 5 and dropped it on his grandpa’s toe.

Digital audio advertising is exploding, recently becoming a
$1.6 billion market. Spotify and Pandora continue to duke it out to be #1 in
digital radio – but what happens when Spotify advertising lets users skip any
and all ads…unlimited, and for free?

Spotify currently has a “Discover” algorithm that curates
and recommends certain artists and songs based on the user’s listening history.
You listen to a lot of Taylor Swift? Here, you might like Ed Sheeran too. It’s
a system that works – so why not apply that same idea to the ads on the
platform? That’s exactly what the unlimited skippable ads are planning to prove.

This just in: 82% of people would not buy a car without radio. And now 75% of new cars have connectivity to internet radio via mobile phones. Newer cars are coming out with more and more options for streaming music.

Internet Radio

And when drivers are home, smart speakers like Alexa and Amazon Echo are also changing how we listen to music. People are shouting, “Alexa, play the Bee Gees!” down the hall more than ever before. Internet radio data is even being heavily factored into the results of the Billboard Top 100—which in turn has an effect on which songs get airplay on traditional broadcast.