Median Strip Poll
Posted: Sat Nov 8, 2003 10:02 am

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Information supplied from www.medianstrip.com

What is the best time to hold NZ music month?

May is NZ Music Month. Right? That's what the slogans have always said. Maybe not for much longer though... June could be NZ Music Month. Or October.

If you felt like you were just getting used to devoting your post-survey promos to things Kiwi and getting all inspired by the Radio Awards Eve showcase to launch the month, you can blame your Mum for disrupting it all.

Mother's Day, also in May, has been the theory behind the fact the major music retailers have never really got behind NZ Music Month (or week, as it was in the old days). Behind Christmas, Mother's Day is music retail's other big unit-shifter - so, understandably, attention is very much focused on selling as much Pavarotti and Ronan Keating as possible.

You can't blame the retail chains for that. Business is tough at the best of time. Trading a Celine Dion window display for a target and some 8 Foot Sativa artwork, over the weekends most consumers are looking for something for Mum would not make sense.

Encouraging retail to push NZ Music Month has always been a core aim. After all, getting the tills ringing is one of the few tangible 'pay-offs' for the industry - the awareness, publicity, airplay and warm fuzzies are great, but it is only sales (CDs and tickets) which will pay the rent and replenish the local repetoire budgets.

It is precisely for this reason that RIANZ are moving The Tuis to later in the year - to help retail cash in on the hype of the NZ Music Awards, not to mention generate some pro-awards hype themselves.

It is also why the powers that be are now looking to shift Music Month. From a radio perspective, does it really matter which month it is? The current content rates are sky-high, higher now than they were during May. Or is May irretrievably branded as NZ Music Month? And if it ain't broke, why risk 'fixing' it? Would survey get in the way of lending maximum support at any other time of year? (That one seems to depend who you talk to... perhaps the 'low risk/low local content' concept is a relic of the past. You tell me).

To complete the Median Strip Poll go to:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~spoton/poll.htm

RE: Median Strip Poll
Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 10:38 pm

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Yup, that all seems logical. I think a month heading towards Christmas would be good. Perhaps we can nab a bigger chunk of the Christmas retail market for NZ artists.

Think spring maybe? Somewhere in Septeoctonove?

Or ... do we take a contrary position purely for the purpose of argument and posit that since New Zealand closes down after Christmas and goes to the beach, and since January and February are Not Good Retail Months, we should shoulder our way into the first quarter of the year with a side order of festivals and live events?

Hard to say. Like "ululation". That's hard to say too.

RE: Median Strip Poll
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:35 pm

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My vote goes for a January or February NZMM. The time when there are a wealth of gigs and tours (indoor and outdoor) going on around the place. The aim of this should be to raise the profile of some of the "lesser knowns" and hopefully encourage higher attendances or at least increased familiarity with the songs. Take them up to the next level! There are many great artists (Stoods/Pan Am/Stylus...etc) who are presently caught in NZ Music Division 2.

This is a crying shame, methinks.

Radio-wise I don't think it matters in the slightest. NZ on Air have announced another rise in NZMusic percentages across all categories - the idea seems to be sinking in (fingers X'd).

RE: Median Strip Poll
Posted: Thu Dec 8, 2005 10:35 pm

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