Chicken and the Egg…

Dan’s in a band from Austin.  GREAT music scene with a lot of opportunities.  His band is a couple years old, consistently plays out, crowd is steadily growing, and wants to know how best to attract some press around their hard earned achievements.  He doesn’t want to spend the money on a publicist as he fears the money will be spent to only hear, “we’re going to pass on featuring the band in our magazine because they don’t have a story yet.”  So if “press” needs “press” to justify featuring you, where do you start?  How do you build the “story”?

You’re doing it.  You just told me what your story is, however it’s no different than any other band out there.  And your gut is right…if you spend money right now, you’re not going to get the press you’d hope for.

You hear me say this over and over again…start locally.  Find every local magazine, newspaper, college paper, fanzine, webzine, and blogger within a 50 mile radious and hit them up.  Hometown stories are good stories.  Let them know when you’re playing and invite them to the show.  Put them on the guest list and make sure to find them, shake their hand, and thank them for taking the time.  Find someone who can write to write your bio.  And don’t exagerate and fluff it up…I personally think the simpler the better at your level.  What have you done, who are you, and what can I expect from your music and live show?  Don’t cheese it up…it’s so transparant and desperate.  Something I’ve done in the past that works is contact a local paper or weekly and ask if they have anyone on staff who writes bios for musicians.  You’ll most likely have to pay $100 or so, but now you’re on their radar, and if they wrote your bio they may have an interest in helping you out a bit too.  It’s a good way to start a partnership.

So for the next 6-8 months hit up everyone you can in your backyard and start accumulating as much local press as you can from album reviews, live show reviews, interviews, small features..anything.  Once you have a healthy quote sheet and some real substance, now you’re building your local hero story.  Take this to your next market.  “Hey, just wanted you to know we’re buzzing in your backyard”.   It’s work…  It’s a lot of follow up and staying on top of the ball, but if you focus on this you will see results…assuming the music is good!  If you’re independent and working for yourself, this is a necessary step.

Thanks, man..keep hustling!

Ben

Publicity…

Where do you most often learn about new music?  It’s getting harder and harder to find great bands.  Some how you need to find a way to stick your head above the crowd…you have to get eyes, then ears, on you and your music.  My friend Richie hit me up asking if it was worth spending $2500 for an indie publicist to work his band for a 3 month campaign…

YES!  Absolutely man…go for it.  That’s an incredibly reasonable price, too.

I’ve seen a resurgence over the past couple years on the importance of press and the potential impact it can create for great bands.  Now that MTV is lame and Radio plays the same homogenized, redundant songs there are fewer and fewer opportunities for new songs to reach the masses through those antiquated mediums.  Press is still a very viable outlet for independent artist to get a little momentum.  Here are somethings to expect and prepare for:

1. Be realistic with the amount of press you’ll get.  No publicist can guarantee coverage and because you’re not on a label, not touring, and don’t have a story yet it’s often times hard to convince a publication to cover you.  It’s the whole chicken and the egg scenario…you need press to build your story, you need a story to build press…so what does that mean for you?
2. You must be incredibly proactive in creating and giving your publicist reasons to continually pitch you.  DO NOT just send the album out and wait for people to fall in love.  You need to send the album out, make a video (then have you publicist hit his/her contacts saying “so and so just posted a great new video), book local shows (then have your publicist hit up every publication in that city no matter how big or small for reviews/features), plan on posting a new piece of media every week for a month (then have your publicist hit up various sites notifying them of your activity and pitch you for a feature), and continue with any new and creative ideas…YOU need to provide the reasons for people to care.
3. Stay on top of your publicist.  I’ve had great and terrible experiences…the problem with paying most  people is once they get the check they’ll work as little as you let them.
4. This is critical – make sure your publicist not only pitches you to magazines but also everything online including webzines and bloggers!!!  When people start to know your band, you want them to google your name and find an abundance of sites featuring/talking about you.

You have to invest in yourself.  Not enough bands are willing to take that risk.  Hire the publicist and make sure you’re band is in a position to take advantage of the possible impressions that come from it…have your songs ready for download, shows on the calendar, and constant updated information.

Oh, and one last thing…once the press starts rolling in…make sure you post blogs and bulletins about it…let your fans know the press your getting so they can read along, it creates a great impression of you.

Ben