Shinedown’s Brent Smith on How ‘Streaming Will Get Your Music Played, But Radio Will Give You a Career’

Shinedown is thing of an anachronism. The seasoned stone set arrived astatine the process extremity of the CD era, lived done the download epoch and has thrived successful the streaming era. Over those years, vigor became little important arsenic integer platforms gained power and short-form video apps specified arsenic TikTok turned into hitmakers. 

But portion overmuch of grounds labels’ promotional efforts person shifted to platforms including TikTok, Shinedown has remained adamant astir the value of terrestrial radio. Earlier successful September, the set notched its 21st No. 1 connected Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay illustration with “Killing Fields.” In March, the set became the archetypal creator with 20 No. 1s connected the illustration with “Dance, Kid, Dance” — 2 much than the adjacent set connected the list, Three Days Grace.

“Streaming volition get your euphony played, but vigor volition springiness you a career, due to the fact that it gave america a vocation and it continues to bash that,” Shinedown vocalist Brent Smith tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “Radio is simply a large portion of the occurrence of the set successful North America.”

It helps that Shinedown is simply a uncommon stone set that appeals to a wide audience, which gives it airplay connected a assortment of vigor formats. “We’re very, precise fortunate due to the fact that we’ve ever looked astatine Shinedown arsenic everyone’s band,” says Smith. “So adjacent from the beginning, that ideology of, ‘Is it a stone band?’ Yes, it’s a stone band. But that’s not everything that we are. Because we’re not influenced by conscionable 1 benignant of euphony oregon 1 genre. We person a beauteous immense palette. We aquatics successful a beauteous large ocean.”

Being a radio-oriented set is simply a batch of work, though. Smith explains that the radical volition tailor its touring and medium cycles to let visits to stations successful cities crossed the U.S. “We request to beryllium capable to spell successful and accidental ‘Hi,’ accidental ‘Thank you.’” And alternatively than absorption connected a fewer large markets, Shinedown visits smaller markets that are nevertheless filled with stone fans. 

“I deliberation it’s really, truly important for radical to recognize that successful this business,” helium says. “Nobody owes you anything. You gotta enactment for it. And honestly, man, sometimes you person to instrumentality it. Are you consenting to outwork the different people? I mean, that’s truly what it comes down to. Sometimes it’s conscionable axenic tenacity much than anything.”

The payoff to decades of vigor promotion is being capable to merchantability thousands of tickets successful astir immoderate marketplace successful the U.S.. Radio is local, Smith explains, and getting airplay helps physique a fanbase successful that market. On the archetypal limb band’s precocious concluded Dance, Kid, Dance Tour, Shinedown played successful Des Moines, Iowa, which has a metropolitan colonisation of astir 540,000 people. On the tour’s 2nd leg, the set played Boston’s TD Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the archetypal time.&nb...