Why are the Morrissey-friendly UK radio stations not playing his new songs?

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He'll never get a massive radio airplay hit (unless one of his songs is featured in a successful film) but all his lead singles from the last 10 years have had decent airplay on Radio 2, 6 Music, XfM, or Absolute (sometimes all four).
But, for some reason, they're hardly playing his new songs at all - they've had 5 or 6 plays in the last month instead of the 500 per month that THPGU or YHKM received.
Why should this be? The consensus seems to be that these songs are considerably better than much (if not most) of what he's done on recent albums.
Is it the confusion of releasing several songs in quick succession?
These stations are already playing lots of Morrissey and Smiths songs anyway. Surely their listeners would love to hear Istanbul?
Maybe the record company have asked them not too, and to keep the songs low key? Seems unlikely.
Maybe there's a brilliant song which hasn't been released yet that the record company are saving for a proper high-profile single?
 
The record company aren't pushing it.

I remember during YATQ he was on TV quite a lot, obviously with that being his "comeback" album that helped too, but it seems either he or his current label aren't promoting the music as well as previous labels have.

Maybe they're quite happy to just make money from tours instead.

It's pretty sad because Morrissey is one of the last truly iconic British artists we have left, and he isn't dead, he's still touring and recording and it seems to be going to waste.

And also parting ways with Alain Whyte - the most talented songwriter he's had since Marr - was an act of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
 
The record company aren't pushing it.

Record companies don't have a magic wand. They can't force radio stations to playlist songs.
The issue really is why the stations are not playing them. Is it because three in three weeks is an odd and confusing strategy?
Or is it one of the other reasons previously mentioned?
 
Maybe because nobody really listens to the radio anymore.
 
Don't blame the record company after the twitter account incident. Getting records played on the radio involves favors and cash. 50 Cent, who you may think is an idiot, but who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars because he understands business, said that there is not one thing on the radio that got there by accident or because someone just liked it. They used to give DJ's cash to play records. They probably still do but they're a lot more sophisticated about it now. Now it's often something like, "play this record by artist A and get exclusive access to artist B." Artist A would be someone just coming up and Artist B would be some superstar.

But why would Harvest spend time promoting Morrissey when he's not playing the game?

Morrissey has done more to promote himself as a public figure with opinions that as a pop star.
 
it's record company's duty to promote. the person in 'harvest' in charge of this doesn't work properly. i bet it is some kind of 'false professional' :rolleyes:

putting aside the popularity of radio in modern world, i think many stations would be delighted to have 'new morrissey'...


p.s. apologies
 
oh, now i see - without 'cash' given to djs they'll pretend there's no new morrissey's album...


p.s. apologies
 
I would imagine it has something to do with the fact that he seemingly took Harvest's entire strategy out to the public square and put a bullet in it's head.

All indications pointed towards a guerrilla marketing campaign that seemed very "fresh" because it wasn't very Morrissey-like; street posters, abstract spoken word videos, digital singles released weekly...combine all of that with a North American tour and the novelty that he had finally embraced social media to interact with his fans via Twitter and you have a lot of attention without a lot of effort. Of course, Morrissey ruined all of that when, after public assurances via credible sources that he actually was Tweeting, he released a statement that contradicted both his management and label. Harvest scurried away in shame of the betrayal and abandoned the account while all the new people who had started talking about Morrissey (thanks to the prospect of him actually caring enough to interact with his fans and share his humor, thoughts and candid moments) started talking about something else...#WeBelieInYouKris

With Morrissey putting a stop to Harvest's marketing machine, it seems either they have no other ideas on how to promote the album (or at least any he'll agree to), or they're punishing him for wasting their money because he felt the need to "save face" among a minority of people who probably haven't liked anything he's done since 1994 anyway.

On top of all of this, you also have to consider the length and content of the songs and age of Morrissey...what radio station is really going to heavily promote a 55-year-old man's 5 minute anti-everything protest pop song, his song about a dead gay middle eastern prostitute, or his umpteenth song about being lonely and wanting to have sex but can't because he feels ugly? Puh-leez. If Morrissey really wanted some radio airplay, he'd have booked some TV performances and given a few interviews to some highly distributed publications.
 
I would imagine it has something to do with the fact that he seemingly took Harvest's entire strategy out to the public square and put a bullet in it's head.

All indications pointed towards a guerrilla marketing campaign that seemed very "fresh" because it wasn't very Morrissey-like; street posters, abstract spoken word videos, digital singles released weekly...combine all of that with a North American tour and the novelty that he had finally embraced social media to interact with his fans via Twitter and you have a lot of attention without a lot of effort. Of course, Morrissey ruined all of that when, after public assurances via credible sources that he actually was Tweeting, he released a statement that contradicted both his management and label. Harvest scurried away in shame of the betrayal and abandoned the account while all the new people who had started talking about Morrissey (thanks to the prospect of him actually caring enough to interact with his fans and share his humor, thoughts and candid moments) started talking about something else...#WeBelieInYouKris

With Morrissey putting a stop to Harvest's marketing machine, it seems either they have no other ideas on how to promote the album (or at least any he'll agree to), or they're punishing him for wasting their money because he felt the need to "save face" among a minority of people who probably haven't liked anything he's done since 1994 anyway.

On top of all of this, you also have to consider the length and content of the songs and age of Morrissey...what radio station is really going to heavily promote a 55-year-old man's 5 minute anti-everything protest pop song, his song about a dead gay middle eastern prostitute, or his umpteenth song about being lonely and wanting to have sex but can't because he feels ugly? Puh-leez. If Morrissey really wanted some radio airplay, he'd have booked some TV performances and given a few interviews to some highly distributed publications.

You make some good points Viva but I think if the singles had had that old fashioned ''physical release with B sides and proper music videos' treatment. People nowadays (or at least I do) crave to buy something we can hold and actually own, not virtually own. I'm tired of the download life (There's my new album title) For me this type of digital only release was a big "f*** YOU" to all of us. I don't really think twitter was going to change much. The spoken word videos were interesting for about 30 seconds but do you really want to re watch them like you would a music video?

Morrissey will sign up for twitter the day he and Joyce have tea.
 
I can only assume he is too busy with signing hundreds of copies of 'Autobiography' for the über, mega, pre-order bumper package to be promoting albums ;)
Regards,
FWD
 
Maybe because nobody really listens to the radio anymore.

You have got the point here, there is SO MUCH RUBBISH there nowadays that nobody bothers, including myself. On top of that this new way of "releasing" singles is not doing him any good , in my opinion. It is a mess.

Cheers Moz
 
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Record companies don't have a magic wand. They can't force radio stations to playlist songs.
The issue really is why the stations are not playing them. Is it because three in three weeks is an odd and confusing strategy?
Or is it one of the other reasons previously mentioned?

It would be interesting to know why Radio 1 and all the biggest commercial stations play such drivel from dawn 'til dusk and beyond then.
 
The Radio 2 breakfast show gets 8 million listeners a day. Nobody listens?
 
The last decent radio airplay Morrissey got was for 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris', which was a short, catchy, song with a strong hooky chorus.
The harsh truth is that none of these three new songs are great 'singles'.
Even the most ardent supporters of 'Istanbul' must admit that it's unlikely to get the great unwashed public tapping their toes and humming along to it.
 
I am also surprised there's been no tv appearances or interviews. Seems like YOR saw a lot of that.
 
Most people think he's a bit of a c***. He's not a man that attracts floating voters. Steve Wright seems to like him but Moz seems to think he's a bit of a c***. Getting airplay is complicated.
 
He wouldn't be morrissey if he wasn't a but of a c***. He's been pissing people off since the 80s. He's been quiet lately, so I'm wondering when the next outrage will happen. I do enjoy them, as most celebrities are so self-involved they don't bother commenting on important issues and bringing attention to them.
 
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