Trendsetting

Music Mafia Radio is attempting to do something unusual in the world of Internet Radio – we focus solely on the music!  Most stations try to pull you in with personalities and gimmicks.  But Music Mafia Radio relies on the best independent music on the planet to keep your attention.  With a reputation for being extremely picky about the music placed into its constantly growing rotation, Music Mafia Radio offers the serious music listener an experience unique to radio.  It also offers indie artists a platform dedicated to them. The goal is to give more visibility to the artist, not the on-air personality.

Award-Winning

This approach has transformed Music Mafia Radio into an award-winning station. Winner of the 2019 and 2023 ISSA Gold and 2022 Bronze Radio Station of the Year and the 2021 Social Stars Radio Station of the Year, Music Mafia Radio is recognized as an innovator and trendsetter in the world of independent music.

Community Focused

In addition to focusing on the music, Music Mafia Radio also works to build a close-knit community of both artists and fans.  With many of our artists joining in on the live show chat every night, fans get an opportunity to meet and interact with the musicians that make Music Mafia Radio the premiere destination for great indie music.  #OneFamilia is more than a hashtag- it is a way of life at Music Mafia Radio.

Indie music continues to represent a larger and larger portion of the new music being produced. Platforms like Music Mafia Radio are quickly becoming the best place to find new music of every style.  If you are sick of the cookie cutter music being played on commercial radio, tune into Music Mafia Radio to hear originality at its best.

With live shows Monday-Thursday at 8pm Eastern, including the Music Mafia Radio Top 30 every Monday night, and a live stream running 24/7, you’ll never be without the greatest music to be found anywhere.  A proud member of the Live365 network, you can tune in either on the Live 365 mobile app or at https://musicmafiaradio.net.

Our Business Philosophy

The music industry has undergone many substantial changes in the 21st century. The advances of music streaming and studio technology, along with the decline of terrestrial radio and traditional music sales have created a completely new business landscape.  While many of these advances have benefitted musicians around the world, those same advances have created a landscape that makes it virtually impossible for the best of those musicians to gain notoriety and get the attention of the mainstream media.

It is estimated that Spotify receives 60,000 new songs a day.  Music Mafia Radio receives over 13,000 requests for airplay every year since 2020.  Our research and experience shows that approximately 2-3% of those requests are of a style and quality to garner huge mainstream support, if given the opportunity, with another 3-4% possessing the same qualities for large niche audiences.  The inability of these artists to break into the mainstream can be directly tied to the ability of a few high-power entities to control the mainstream musical landscape and inability to stand out from the flood of new music that is simply not good enough to break into the mainstream.

Internet radio is positioned to be the best platform to break this corporate stranglehold on the music industry.  Most internet stations are free from corporate control, particularly those that cater to unsigned artists.  However, as technology has made it easier to create music, it has also made starting an internet radio station very simple.  As a result, there are now thousands of internet radio stations to be found, with many of them using an “indie music” programming format.  Our research indicates the great majority of these stations take a “quantity versus quality” approach to programming, attempting to air as many artists as possible, as opposed to narrowing their programming to the very best music available.  This dilution of talent makes it even more difficult for quality music to breakthrough to the mainstream masses.

The philosophy at Music Mafia Radio is to buck this trend and instead focus on a select group of artists that represent the best the industry has to offer, leveraging both our radio and social media reach to help these musicians garner the attention of potential fans and the larger music industry.  This approach also allows listeners to expect a consistent, high quality listening experience, which solidifies the growth of our audience.  If enough internet stations adopt this blueprint, internet radio will become a power player in the music industry.

A Brief History

Music Mafia Radio was created in 2016 by Rick Landstrom as an outlet for independent musicians.  Originally formatted to be a mix of classic hits and new independent music, MMR quickly changed to an all-indie format in the first few months of its existence.  The station quickly developed a loyal following, including all of the current staff members of MMR.  In July 2017, the Stephenson’s and Patty Zeller officially joined the staff, and Coz (Scott Stephenson) was promoted to partner by Landstrom in 2019.  The two partners continued to build on the success MMR had enjoyed, including joining the Live365 network.

In early 2020, Rick Landstrom made the decision to leave Music Mafia Radio, handing full control of the station over to Scott Stephenson.   In November of 2020, Stephenson moved the center of operations from Colorado Springs, CO to Oak Island, NC, where MMR has become an essential part of the local community.