Radio/Internet/I-Pod combine to peddle CD's

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 23rd, 2005

Mark Ridley sends along the following for your consideration:

Comics, you’ve given your material away in interviews and on satellite radio for a long time. Isn’t it about time you earned a ROYALTY on those archived performances? Satellite radio has a handful of listeners compared to the tens of MILLIONS on terrestrial radio. I want to introduce you to a brand new income source– Handheld Comedy. They use radio stations nationwide to promote your performances and deliver them via podcasting and internet download from their website. You’ll receive a 10per cent royalty on every sale of your downloadable CD or recorded live performance that they sell.

Interested? Just send your CD(s) to Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, 269 E. Fourth St., Royal Oak, MI 48067. This is a stunning new concept and, as someone in the business for 26 years, the most exciting I’ve seen for comics. Email me with any questions: mark@handheldcomedy.com.

Stunning new concept? Maybe. We’ll see. It has puzzled us that XMRadio, with all of its technological advancement, hasn’t simultaneously developed an online presence that seeks to create an internet-based channel that enables a listener (an online listener or a satellite listener) to hop onto the XM site and determine the artist, the CD title, and the price, and, after a couple dozen keystrokes, purchase the CD.

XM is good for comics. In addition to hearing the comic’s work, we see the comic’s name. However, we’ve been frustrated by the fact that we can’t go onto XM’s website and see who’s on the bird at any given moment, who’s just been on the bird, who’s coming up on the bird, etc. It would only be a short hop to “I just heard the funniest guy on XM (clatter, clatter, clatter of keyboard)– It’s Lord Carret! I’m having his new CD sent to my brother for Christmas!” Bang. CD sale.

Maybe this Handheldcomedy thing will be a radio/internet hybrid which will fill that void.