5 Hard Truths About Music Publicity:
Stephanie Maksimow, Founder/CEO/Director of Publicity for Whoa That’s Fresh is sharing her five most crucial hard truths about music publicity. The goal is to share more insight into our process as publicists, debunk misconceptions, and help prepare new and current clients for today’s media landscape as we navigate it together!
1.Nobody cares about your band
Bands really hate to hear this and publicists might be afraid to say it…but it’s the hardest truth that an artist needs to hear. Nobody actually cares about your band.
In the world of internet streaming, independent distributors, Garage Band, and Pro Tools, anyone can become a recording artist these days. There are also MANY scammers out there offering indie playlisting, “publicity” (if you can even call it that) and other “marketing services” (that can actually hurt rather than hinder your organic growth as an artist). Because of this, the music industry atmosphere is noisy, chaotic, and filled with sub-par musicians with unprofessional “teams” and it’s extremely difficult for an independent artist to stand out among the rest. Until you have made your mark in this industry by becoming a recognizable name, you’re nothing but another email in the inbox. Sorry, not sorry.
Here lies the challenge for a new artist: You need to make the legitimate industry players care.
How do you do that? A carefully planned, strategic, and professionally implemented publicity campaign will help you find your story. What makes you, your music, and your art - unique? What do your fans love about you? Who are you? Publicity can also connect you through lifestyle features, to find audiences to connect with you on a more emotional and personal level - such as LGBTQ+ advocacy blogs like The Advocate or GLAAD, or female-empowerment magazines like Audiofemme or Ladygunn. Podcasts and interview opportunities also give your fans, and potential new audience, an inside look into you as a person, an artist, and a talent.
It’s no longer enough just to have good, well-recorded music. You need to be a personality as well.
2. Good press does not come cheap
Us publicists cannot stress this enough. We often find ourselves being asked to negotiate our rates dramatically and it’s unfairly typical for a client to approach the team with hostility on a discounted campaign. Publicists are paid for their time, not for results.
We typically advise against and try to avoid paid media placement or “payola;” however, with this ultra-competitive industry space, many magazines and top-tier media outlets have started to enforce “paid promotions,” meaning that if you want a top-notch feature with social media attention, you must pay a premium price for this. So what does a feature like this cost? Our team has been quoted anywhere from $200 for a single news post (a.k.a. Re-posting our press release) or $600 for a premiere, interview, or exclusive feature. We’ve even seen features cost over $1000…for a single article. A newsletter placement in a magazine’s emailer can cost over $2000 for a single email. Therefore, if you are paying your publicist a low-monthly rate, your publicist likely does not have a budget to negotiate these higher-tiered opportunities or provide the editorial with a promotional budget to bring attention to your article through social media or the outlet’s newsletter.
Here is a real example of a response to one of our pitches:
“Thanks for reaching out. Does WTF offer compensation for our time and effort to publish a feature? We get buried in submissions as we are in high demand, and already have our usual avenues in which we acquire articles.”
When you pay for a publicist, you pay a monthly retainer for their time and dedication to your campaign. Similar to how you would pay a lawyer a monthly retainer for them to research, analyze, and argue your case, you are paying a publicist to champion you to their media network, legitimize you as an artist, fail, try, fail, and try again. Publicity is a full-time job with many hurdles, climbs, and falls. Your publicist takes hours of their day to research, strategize carefully, and yes – sometimes even schmooze on your behalf. This is all a part of our jobs as a publicist, representing you as an artist. The higher your retainer, the more likely your publicist will be able to dedicate more of their time to you and not have to fill their roster with other clients to compensate themselves to a full-time rate.
If you are unhappy with your publicity campaign in 2022, chances are you’re not paying enough to warrant most of your publicist’s time.
3. Meeting a deadline can make or break your press campaign
We do not create deadlines for the press; they create deadlines for us. Editors and magazines have editorial calendars that they must stick to. Their content is planned well ahead of time and priority is given to the largest artists. The largest artists also tend to have the most lead time for delivering assets. Therefore, when your publicist says that they need 6-8 weeks of lead time to pitch your content properly – they mean it.
Sorry to say it again – but Top Tier editors do not care about your music. If you want to break into a major space as an independent artist, you need to play by the rules, be polite, and go with the flow. Editors don’t care that your video was delivered late or that the producer didn’t deliver the Master file on time. They’re not going to hold an editorial calendar spot for an artist they barely know that they have not built trust with before. Further, if an editor doesn’t have all deliverables handy, they won’t think twice about giving your editorial spot away to a larger, more notable artist down the line.
Sometimes, an editor will let a deadline slide due to having a great relationship with the publicist but that should be the exception, not the rule. Missed deadlines, delivering content late, etc. can make or break your publicist’s ability to secure you a solid press opportunity. When it comes to deadlines, our hands are tied.
4. Press is a marathon, not a race
A good publicity campaign takes time. By now, you’ve probably gotten it beaten into your head by me that nobody actually cares about your music. I’m saying it again…sorry.
As an independent artist, you are building your reputation within the music media landscape, earning their trust, and getting them to learn your name. You don’t go straight from playing small bars to being on the cover of Rolling Stone or playing live on Jimmy Kimmel. There is a lot of time, planning, discussion, coordination, introductions, and other factors that go into promoting a new artist. You have to prove yourself first before you get a chance to play with the big wigs.
Think of this scenario – at your stage in your career right now, how would you handle it if you had to be interviewed live on National TV or play for Jimmy Fallon? You probably would feel unprepared, scared, and anxious. You would probably make mistakes and say something awkward. A long-term publicity campaign gives you opportunities to get media training and practice these skills in a safe environment – where if you screw up, it’s not the end of the world, but you are also getting practice for when you do make it big. In addition, you are working with smaller-scale bloggers, independent writers, and freelancers, and legitimizing yourself to larger media individuals. This builds trust.
I call this the “proverbial snowball.” You get your press rolling and as you interview more, get reviewed more, get talked about more, your name soon becomes recognizable to larger outlets, the chances of them opening or replying to emails for consideration increases, and your music career will grow with time. Just like a snowball rolling down a hill, it will get bigger.
In addition to taking the time to build your image within the media landscape. Press just takes time! Real talk: Our MTV News interview with M.A.G.S. took almost 6 months to pitch, coordinate, plan, schedule, and be released. Currently, we are working on an article for a top-tier outlet that took 2 weeks to prepare, 2 weeks to pitch, and we are amid another 2-week deadline to complete the article content before even scheduling the article or knowing when it will go live - that’s 6 weeks of just prep and lead time and publishing is another stage of the process.
Many large media organizations do not have large teams and you have to be patient, be respectful, and let those with more power than you lead the way. You cannot rush a good press opportunity or force someone to work on your terms – be prepared for the long game. You’re not Beyoncé yet.
5. We are all human
Shocker! I know. We in the press and media world like to enjoy time with our families, take down time on weekends, we have emergencies, we get sick, shit happens.
Sometimes interviews need to be canceled or rescheduled, an article doesn’t go live on time, an editor gets fired from an outlet, or an opportunity gets dropped or pushed back due to some form of breaking news. Sometimes journalists have preferences for how and when they schedule interviews, or specific needs and requests, forms to fill out for podcasts and live shows. Most music journalists don’t get paid to cover music and most of them have full-time jobs outside of writing so if there is a preference for that journalist, we need to respect that and play by their rules.
Things happen in the press and media world just like they happen in the real world and we are all humans behind the scenes. Allow for mistakes. Allow for time. Allow for those around you to not be perfect. And always show respect.
Thanks for checking out this month’s blog! If you want to learn more about how publicity can help spread the word about your upcoming project, you can get in touch with us here and we’ll reply as soon as we can!
