howiewood.com
Don't fall for Howie's salesmanship
If you're an independent artist, Howie will call you. He'll tell you your track is great. He'll give you specifics on why he thinks it's great for radio. He'll start talking big things for your track. He wants to get you signed to a label, he'll get your track on big satellite radio shows with famous hosts. He'll get you interviews. Etc... He'll promise you a ton of stuff. None of that will happen. Your campaign will run, and it will be underwhelming.
He'll show you Activator chart numbers that your track is performing alongside Katy Perry... it's not. The tiny "activator" radio stations he has deals with self-report plays, and they will be a terrible fit. He put my pop-rock song on mostly Christian talk radio stations. I use Shazam to track conversions, and other, reputable radio marketing initiatives I did had noticeable reach. I ran a radio ad for a week in a city, saw ~150 shazams (for 1/3 the price). I saw maybe 5 or 10 total across the "cities" Howie runs your song (if it runs at all, because again, these stations self-report plays). Less than a dozen real people wanting to know what my song is. These stations are not good fits for your music. And you will not see significant conversions.
If you try and hold him to the things he promised you at the beginning, like the Sirius XM spot he said would be "no problem", he will dodge you. He'll say he's trying, that he'll call in a favor, etc... You'll never hear from him, you'll have to chase him, and nothing will come of it.
But, at the end of the campaign, you know what he will do? He'll try and convince you to give him more money to extend the campaign, cause the track is "really picking up steam. It would be a bad move to not capitalize on its recent momentum. You should extend, and pay me more money." No thanks.
Look, I know that radio promotion is a risk. You can pay a radio tracker a lot of money with no results, that's the nature of the business, and I know that. I've had a long career and worked with people across the industry. But Howie is not a reputable radio tracker. The stations are terrible fits for your music. You might be getting played at 4am in a town no one has ever heard of, if at all. This is not a good use of money for any indie-artist.
When he first reached out, I asked some industry contacts about him. Most had never heard of him, but a couple people told me to avoid like the plague, that he's not legitimate. But my convos with Howie had gone so well, I ignored the advice. I wish I hadn't. So now I'm writing this to try and save others from my fate.
The deal will sound great, because Howie is an excellent salesman. But that's what he is, and he knows how to prey on vulnerable artists who want their music heard. Don't fall for it, and spend your money on something that will actually benefit your career. He will not make your career. He will not blow you up. And you'll be thousands of dollars poorer. Avoid avoid avoid.
