How Tiger Bomb Promo Uses DISCO to Simplify Radio Servicing
Tiger Bomb Promo is an Austin, TX-based non-commercial radio promotion company working with record labels and artists such as Wednesday, Shame, Crumb, and many more. Founder Shil Patel told us about his team’s experience servicing music to radio stations via DISCO.
Creating a simpler, more appealing process for all
When we switched to DISCO, the main goal was to simplify how we digitally service music to radio stations.
Before DISCO, we used Dropbox. It was clunky, hard for a lot of stations to use, and difficult to download individual files. I wanted one place where everybody could go to download WAVs, MP3s, and individual tracks, or get everything at once.
The presentation of DISCO Pages and playlists was a big advantage. Dropbox links didn’t look or feel special to send; you just got a list of file names with no artwork. It was a very anti-climactic experience. When comparing the look and feel of playlists on different servicing platforms, DISCO won us over with the ability to add a bio, links, album art, and more. It was polished and complete. A lot of radio stations notice it and appreciate it looking better and having all the information accessible in one place.
I think radio stations were really excited that we were using DISCO. On the client side — labels and artists — I’ve watched more and more make the switch, so it’s easier for them to share files directly into our Inbox.
We’ve got a playlist for that
A huge perk of DISCO playlists is that you can update tracks or add new versions such as clean edits to a playlist, and the updates are made live. The link stays the same and you don’t have to recreate anything. When we used Dropbox, we’d deliver an album to stations, then a week later, have to go back and replace that entire zip file, which sometimes would be a gig and a half. It was a tedious, time-consuming process. With DISCO, we can swap it out and no one will know the difference because they’ll have that original link.
We most frequently use DISCO playlists to send new records and singles to radio stations. We have a playlist called the Singles Pack that we update every Friday with new singles from upcoming album releases.
We also make individual playlists for each of our artists with an upcoming release. For example, McKinley Dixon who’s on City Slang has three singles with clean edits attached to each one in his playlist.
Another playlist we send to stations is for artists with upcoming tour dates in their market or special local performances. Like, ‘Here are these four bands coming through Chicago, check this out’.
We use DISCO Pages for each album or EP that we’re sending out to radio stations so we can include their bio, social media links, streaming platform links, and even lyrics and album art. Lyrics are super important because we have to let stations know if there are any FCC violations in any of the songs.
The most fun part of having the DISCO account for me is creating playlists for specific labels. I can tell a radio station or music director, ‘Hey, you should get familiar with Joyful Noise Recordings or City Slang Records’. Then we can make a specific playlist for that.
Why DISCO works well for radio promo
DISCO is the best value for this type of service that I’ve found yet. It replaces having to deal with SoundCloud streams, especially now that the playlists on there have ads in them. I feel like SoundCloud is just such an unreliable service.
With DISCO, I like that once you have an account, you talk to the support team and give them your input on what specific fields and info you need to include in your playlists. I highly recommend it because it’s such a good value, super easy to use, and much more reliable than Dropbox or SoundCloud.
The process prior to using disco was time-consuming, tedious, and unremarkable. Sending CDs was the standard for the first 12 years or so I was doing radio promotion. We had to switch to all digital delivery as a necessity during the pandemic. You just don’t typically get as many eyes on things in someone’s inbox as you do with a CD on their desk that has a sticker on it with all the info, plus a lollipop that I would send them. Those things made an impact. With DISCO, having a really aesthetically pleasing playlist grabs people’s attention in this all-digital age, and it has everything they need in one place.
Need help with your DISCO?
Shoot us a note at support@disco.ac and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have and get you set up.
