Here is the transcript of the NPR report I heard the other week: http://m.npr.org/news/Business/171476473 http://m.npr.org/news/Business/171476473 The truth is

Here is the transcript of the NPR report I heard the other week: http://m.npr.org/news/Business/171476473 http://m.npr.org/news/Business/171476473 The truth is that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis hired a company to help them get their music into stores. That company, Alternative Distribution Alliance, is an arm of Warner Music Group, one of the most major of the major labels. To carry them across the finish line, get to top 40 radio, get the number one song in the country, they went old school. They tapped Warner Music Group, not some quasi-independent subsidiary but the real deal. Warner gets them on the radio in exchange for a cut of the profits. Those were the major points. They just used an arm of WMG to get bigger exposure both on the radio and via distribution. I shouldn't have said 'signed' above when stating that is how they got to number one on the radio, they just signed a deal for a major to take a cut of the profits for the exposure and help that that brings to get them to #1.