Sirius/XM corporate sponsorship of DCI?

[2muchcoffeeman]

Outside of a few megamarkets in the U.S., there's no way you could run a local raggae-format radio station and make any money. There just aren't enough devoted raggae listeners in Boise or Kansas City or Huntsville. But if you could create one raggae station that broadcast to the entire country at once, you'd have an audience size large enough to make the station sustainable.

That's sattelite radio. Sirius XM has music channels devoted not only to raggae, but to two forms of Hip-Hop, three forms of R&B, two forms of Gospel, 24 flavors of Rock, five variations of country -- to say nothing of the (lamentably) growing number of sports & talk channels devoted to conservatives, liberals, gays, catholics, golf (!), soccer, NASCAR, Indy Car . . . .

The nationwide "listenership" of marching music probably is smaller than even the listenership of XM Channel 61 (Bluegrass). Sadly, XM is not going to creating a DCI-programmed channel.

However, consider the following generalization as a proposition: Drum corps fans tend to have large and diverse musical appetites. Among a drum-corps crowd you will find one of the richest veins of music appreciation to be found anywhere. We are music omnivores.

In other words: Exactly the kind of people who make good satellite-radio customers. This has the aroma of a potentially beneficial relationship.

Looking at this from the Sirius/XM perspective:

• You have a large fleet of buses at your disposal. You have thousands of 16-21 demo consumers, all of them rabid music enthusiasts, stuck in buses as a captive audience for significant portions of the summer. As a DCI sponsor, you have the ability to beam your programming to every bus/van in the DCI fleet, with your brand emblazoned on each one.
• You have stadiums loaded with people who understand the pathetically meager state of music-education resources, and who appreciate those who support the arts.
• You have access to a high-pitched show environments, where everyone is in a lean-forward, cheer-loudly frame of mind surrounding music. This group is ready for your message.
• You have access to a wide variety of DCI show markets, from small towns where local radio is abysmal, to major metros such as Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

Looking at this from the DCI perspective:

• You have the opportunity to establish a relationship that supports the entire activity, and that doesn't infringe on sponsorship arrangements already in place among individual corps.
• You have access to a nationwide sattelite-radio audience that numbers in the tens of millions -- people who pay money each month for radio. While you won't have a drum-corps channel to showcase your product, XM can help promote your shows and especially your theatercasts and Fan Network.
• A big part of the drum-corps experience involves long drives on the highway -- exactly the environment where satellite radio has its biggest advantages.
• A radio sponsorship is not zero-sum. You can sign up another drum sponsor, but only at the cost of displacing one of your current drum sponsors. Radio doesn't force you to make room.

Satellite radio has been around for more than 10 years. I'd be surprised if this concept hasn't already been examined, and I'd be interested to learn the reasons why nothing ever came of it. To a non-marketing person like me, it seems a natural fit.

Edited July 28, 2013 by 2muchcoffeeman

[garfield]

There's one, major problem. The judges sheets place so much emphasis on visual that many corps' show music makes very little sense without the accompanying visual. Today's drum corps is much less like the old days when music was a heavier focus in judging and you could listen to almost any show audio and be nearly as-entertained as when you were in the stands.

There are only a few shows this year whose music book stands on its own without the visual, IMO.

Only when the sheets move back towards emphasizing music over visual will this idea have legs, also IMO.

[AlexL]

Honestly (as an XM subscriber)... no.

If they get bandwidth for another channel, they wont be adding this. I mean theyve already cut some other stations, such as the Cinemagic channel that probably had a lot more interest than drum corps ever will.

[2muchcoffeeman]

The judges sheets place so much emphasis on visual that many corps' show music makes very little sense without the accompanying visual. Today's drum corps is much less like the old days when music was a heavier focus in judging and you could listen to almost any show audio and be nearly as-entertained as when you were in the stands.

There are only a few shows this year whose music book stands on its own without the visual, IMO.

Only when the sheets move back towards emphasizing music over visual will this idea have legs, also IMO.

Understood, but again, as I stipulated in the OP, this isn't about broadcasting drum-corps music on a dedicated satellite channel. This is about two organizations, whose memberships and customer bases have wide areas of overlap, finding each other for mutual benefit. XM gets access to a target-rich set of potential customers by affiliating itself with a music-intensive activity. DCI gets money and access to promotion of its events (not broadcast of the events themselves) to XM's millions of subscribers, who already have taken the qualifying step of paying money for radio, probably because they appreciate just how bad local free radio is and have a broader appetite for music than your average local FM listener.

Also, keep in mind that Sirius/XM already has channels devoted to Broadway musicals, and to Opera -- two art forms that are as equally dependent on visual expression as is drum corps. Heck, they even broadcast golf. Golf. On the radio.

But, once again for clarity: I'm not proposing that XM broadcast drum corps music. This is not about creating a drum-corps channel on XM.

Instead, what I'm proposing is this:

XM gives DCI money. XM also provides on-air promotion of local/regional/theater/online DCI events. XM also provides its current service to DCI fleet vehicles. Kids on buses (those not already plugged into iPods) fight over which channel to listen to. NONE OF THE CHANNELS HAS DRUM CORPS.

DCI gives XM signs on corps buses, trucks, etc. DCI gives XM signage, scoreboard, and live-announcer promotion at sanctioned events. DCI gives XM ads in show programs. DCI gives XM free vendor space where XM can demo its service.

Edited July 28, 2013 by 2muchcoffeeman

[perc2100]

There's one, major problem. The judges sheets place so much emphasis on visual that many corps' show music makes very little sense without the accompanying visual. Today's drum corps is much less like the old days when music was a heavier focus in judging and you could listen to almost any show audio and be nearly as-entertained as when you were in the stands.

There are only a few shows this year whose music book stands on its own without the visual, IMO.

Only when the sheets move back towards emphasizing music over visual will this idea have legs, also IMO.

IDK; I think the station would not just play current DCI shows (that would get old pretty quick, wouldn't it). There is a TON of music one could use to fill broadcast space:

* 'concert' tunes & parade marches

* drum cadences

* stuff recorded for CD's (for example, the 'Ornaments in Brass CD)

* older drum corps shows

* snippets/highlights from older drum corps shows (for example, maybe just "Legend of the One-eyed Sailor from BD 76)

* I&E stuff (why aren't these recorded for FN anyway?!?!)

I think what might be more feasible would be for drum corps to get a channel "part time" and split it with another niche channel: maybe someone can find some synergy with another genre, and get some new listeners into the activity.

I think it's a cool idea that I personally had not really thought of (I don't really listen to satellite radio, but a good friend of mine listens to the Soccer channel almost exclusively). I imagine it would need to start with someone willing to do the leg work & foot the ball in order to prove that there is a market. I honestly have no idea how much it costs to get a program on satellite radio, but I think it might be worth exploring

[13strokeroll]

An interesting idea at the very least, with opportunities to broaden content with old material as well as additional access to multiple shows; but, I agree about the loss of the visual perspective. Uninitiated family and friends that came to see our child march became hooked by watching the whole spectacle. Music was only a small part of what grabbed their attention. At best, sadly, this would only grab a very small niche.

Edited July 29, 2013 by 13strokeroll

[Kilgore42]

• You have a large fleet of buses at your disposal. You have thousands of 16-21 demo consumers, all of them rabid music enthusiasts, stuck in buses as a captive audience for significant portions of the summer. As a DCI sponsor, you have the ability to beam your programming to every bus/van in the DCI fleet, with your brand emblazoned on each one.

Do the math. 44 DCI corps with three buses. And Sirius is supposed to get excited about this?

[Jeff Ream]

Understood, but again, as I stipulated in the OP, this isn't about broadcasting drum-corps music on a dedicated satellite channel. This is about two organizations, whose memberships and customer bases have wide areas of overlap, finding each other for mutual benefit. XM gets access to a target-rich set of potential customers by affiliating itself with a music-intensive activity. DCI gets money and access to promotion of its events (not broadcast of the events themselves) to XM's millions of subscribers, who already have taken the qualifying step of paying money for radio, probably because they appreciate just how bad local free radio is and have a broader appetite for music than your average local FM listener.

Also, keep in mind that Sirius/XM already has channels devoted to Broadway musicals, and to Opera -- two art forms that are as equally dependent on visual expression as is drum corps. Heck, they even broadcast golf. Golf. On the radio.

But, once again for clarity: I'm not proposing that XM broadcast drum corps music. This is not about creating a drum-corps channel on XM.

Instead, what I'm proposing is this:

XM gives DCI money. XM also provides on-air promotion of local/regional/theater/online DCI events. XM also provides its current service to DCI fleet vehicles. Kids on buses (those not already plugged into iPods) fight over which channel to listen to. NONE OF THE CHANNELS HAS DRUM CORPS.

DCI gives XM signs on corps buses, trucks, etc. DCI gives XM signage, scoreboard, and live-announcer promotion at sanctioned events. DCI gives XM ads in show programs. DCI gives XM free vendor space where XM can demo its service.

not enough of a return for XM. Look, their cash cow since 2006, Howard Stern, had to sue for stock options he was owed. He himself added well over 5 million listeners when he hopped to satellite. then they went and dumped money for stuff like Oprah, Martha Stewart, etc that didn't make them a dime.

DCI is a niche. XM/Sirius continues to grow because units are being put into more cars every day. while Xm can do a lot for DCI, there's not much DCI can do for XM. I'm willing to say DCI's fan base is already saturated with satellite subscribers

[The Other Mike]

I thought we had drum corps raido...............

[Jeremy.]

I thought we had drum corps raido...............

what, where!?