This is step seven in my online music marketing series. In the last post (step six) we discussed blogging. In step seven we’re going to get out the bull horn and stand from the highest point we can find and scream it to the world!! What are we talking about…?
Public Relations or PR
There many forms of PR available to the DIY independent musician. I say this over and over, but, I am really excited about this, so, I will say it again. The fact that all this is available to artists is nothing short of incredible. Previously these opportunities were only available to major record labels or well connected publicists.
In this post I will cover a few of the PR applications that are available to musicians. I will focus primarily on the most effective avenues. Those being Bloggers, Internet Radio and Press Releases.
Quick Note
Social Media can be considered to be a form of PR, however, I have already dedicated an entire post Marketing Your Music Online – Step Five) to this subject as I did blogging for musicians (Marketing Your Music Online – Step Six).
PR Medium #1 – Bloggers
Reaching out to music bloggers was uncovered in 2006 to 2008 as a back door into a niche community to market your music to. It is no longer the tricky marketing tactic that it was then as it has gained popularity, which in turn has weakened its affect somewhat. However, this practice is still alive and well and is considered well worth your time and effort. There are a lot of strategies to get music bloggers to blog about your music. The first step is one of the more complex parts of this process. It is the same if you are marketing anything to anybody.
You have to know who you are marketing to. You have to know bloggers in order to know how to ask them to write about your music. The easiest way to get to know a blogger is so simple and yet is often overlooked. Read their blog. I know that sounds infantile, but, bloggers get an incredible amount of anonymous solicitations that have nothing to do with the topics that they write about on their blog. I write an industry blog. I don’t review music. I have musicians regularly posting on my blog or emailing me asking me to listen to their music. When this happens, it is clear to me that this person has not read my blog at all. It wouldn’t take long to figure out that they are barking up the wrong tree. I’m not just talking about soliciting a blogger of a completely off topic blog either. Let’s say the blogger does review music. If the blogger writes about Death Metal and you play folk music, you can deduce that this blogger may not be the right fit. Reaching out to them would be a waste of everyone’s time.
That Was Easy – Now For Something A Little More Challenging
That is the simple discussion. A more complicated discussion is about developing a relationship with a blogger who would possibly be a good fit for your music.
First you have to start by attempting to understand music bloggers as a group and then as an individual. To better understand music bloggers as a group check out this post, and this post and this post. A great way to develop a relationship with a blogger (or anyone, for that matter) is to have a conversation with that person… about them… not you. If you read their blog you will have a lot of things to discuss with them and will be better able to refrain from talking about yourself, your accomplishments or even… your music. That’s right… don’t talk about your music. At least not right away. This is a strategy that has existed in marketing that is a gazllion years old. It is an underlying topic discussed in the classic book by Dale Carnegie “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Yet it is underutilized.
The basic strategy is this… Once you’ve developed a relationship with a blogger, then, and only then, do you ask the blogger to review your music. Be grateful and accepting of criticism. Ariel Hyatt or Ariel Publicity and CyberPR has a lot to say about approaching bloggers. Check out her book Music Success in Nine Weeks. Among other things the book covers bloggers extensively.
PR Medium #2 – Internet Radio
Let’s talk about radio. Internet Radio is more and more available and some of the internet radio stations are effective and some are not. The user influenced content radio stations like Pandora, MOG and Spotify are really fascinating. When your music is played on these stations you are more likely to reach your target audience. Let me give you an example… If you play Latin style rock and someone has made a station in Pandora based on Santana. When your tune comes up, this person will be more likely to be interested in you and there is a better chance they will be interested in finding out more about you.
To get your music on Pandora check out this guide on their website. Some distribution services discussed in Marketing Your Music Online – Step Three will submit your music to Pandora for you. This is an amazing opportunity you have available to you as a musician to gain exposure. Pandora has over 60 million listeners as of this writing.
There are several other internet radio stations that are worth the effort to get some air time. Jango is also a popular internet radio station that will recommend your music to listeners of similar more well known music. Jango allows listeners to ‘like’ the songs they hear and also to become ‘fans’ where they give up their email address. Could be useful. This station provides, for musicians, a way to buy air play.
One could say this is kinda backwards. I mean the way it used to be, the radio played your music because they thought it was good and the musician got paid through ASCAP or BMI (of course this is excluding the discussion about payola). I say this type of radio play is akin to a plumber paying for advertising time on a local radio station. Your music career is a business and businesses have to advertise to get the word out. In the good old days when the radio paid musicians I would say that a plumber had better of odds of succeeding than a musician. Now I would say that gap is closing.
Last.fm is an internet radio station that merges radio listening with social media. Users can share music they like and the service will suggest music that other users with similar tastes are sharing. There is a paid version of this service that allows you to target and promote a specific campaign but the basic uploading of your music is free. So I would check this out.
PR Medium #3 – Press Releases
So the last form of PR that I will cover in this post is Press Releases. Press Releases don’t accomplish what they used to. The way it used to work was a Press Release was piped out in the news media and the message reached X number of eyeballs or ear drums. It still works this way to some extent but the Press Release format is so readily available to anyone, that the general public has begun to regard this format as noise. The number of brains connected to those eyeballs or ear drums that will actually retain your message is significantly fewer than it used to be.
So, why bother, you might ask. The major benefit of Press Releases is really related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If your press release gets picked up by a news site with a lot of page authority then searches for related keyword phrases will turn up your Press Release and your message will be heard.
There are several companies that provide a press release service. One of the largest companies and most referred to is PR Web. PR Web is generally considered to be reliable and will likely reach as many corners of the internet as possible. Another service out there is Market Wire. I don’t know as much about these guys. However, I have heard that they do a good job with the local media outlets. But, that’s just rumor.
Don’t know how to write a press release? Well, I am not going to tell you… Here is a comprehensive guide on how to write a Press Release. It’s not rocket science, but, like anything else there is a finesse to it. I recommend looking over the guide and jumping in. The best way to learn this type of thing is to do it.
So that’s my take on PR. PR is so powerful that there are whole companies whose only function is to handle PR for artists.
I have sent you here before and I am going to keep sending you, because few other companies understand independent musicians and have musician’s best interest in mind. Ariel Publicity / Cyber PR does a great job.
This concludes my online Music Marketing Series. I had a great time putting this together and I hope it is of some use to you. Please leave your comments below. Feel free to share your personal experiences. I would love to hear how you are doing.
Tom Siegel
P.S. – For more information about how to put together an online music marketing strategy sign up for my newsletter atwww.indieleap.com.
