Boosting Your Music PR In 2021
Once upon a time Record Labels, Music PR Firms and Radio Stations were the gatekeepers of the music industry. In order to get in front on an audience, you needed their help.
Now, it’s easier than ever for a musician to build an audience on their own. You no longer need to hire a PR Firm who can give you an in. As a creative budding artist, you can easily manage the majority of the key PR tasks yourself.
Most musicians don’t go into the music industry with a passion and a talent for public relations or business. But you don’t need to be a dedicated PR pro or have a team on the payroll to see results.
Music PR is a way of promoting your music and content to generate attention from the public and media. For a PR firm, this is easier to do as they usually have a dedicated list of media contacts they can distribute to.
However, it is still possible for artists to manage their PR and see results. Music Public Relations provides vital access to the industry and as an independent artist you can take advantage of this on your own.
Why Does Music PR Still Matter?
Yes, the music PR world is much more challenging than it used to be. But that doesn’t mean that it is a waste of time. In fact, it is of vital importance. Music public relations strategies are vital to any artist looking to create a name for themselves.
If there is music out there, there will always be people looking for it. The key focus of a media outlet is to interest its readers and provide them information they are looking for.
For the media, the fans and the artist, music PR can provide great benefits. As an artist, if you are looking to connect with a new audience who are eager to discover new music, press coverage could really benefit you. It opens new audiences for artists, intrigues readers for media sources and introduces new artists to fans.
What has changed?
For an artist Public Relations is about getting music out there, through media sources to help musicians further their career. For the media companies, it needs to help sell the relevant magazines, websites and ads. Across recent years, technology has continued to evolve, leading to widespread changes in the way music PR works.
In recent years, the public relations landscape has changed for musicians. As technology evolves, the way that Music PR reaches consumers has evolved with it.
Artists Now Have Direct Access To Fans
Gone are the days that artists would use media sources to announce new releases to their fans! Now they have social media platforms enabling them to engage with fans directly.
Fewer Outlets Now Cover Music
Mainstream music media outlets continue to control the space, meaning that many indie music blogs struggle to build up sizeable audiences. Where independent music medias run on passion, not profit, they are not always able to sustain their journey in the long run. Big corporate organisation, running on profit, not passion, are able to churn out media, with plenty of cash in its back pocket.
You Have Strong Competition
For large media corporations focusing on creating profit, you might encounter some strong competition for publication space. There are artists with hundreds of thousands of followers and huge marketing budgets, helping them to sell more ads and create more money.
What You Can Do
1. Make Your Music Available.
Set up an agreement with a good music distributor. Any good PR campaign is intended to generate interest and raise awareness of your music. You need to ensure that your music is highly accessible. The first step is to make it available on as many channels as possible. Every writer, blogger and reporter will have their own preference on the platform they listen on. If your music isn’t available there, they probably won’t even give you a listen. A presence on every popular platform will ensure you can reach any media writer and any listeners.
2. Use Your Social Medias
Making your music available is a good start, but it’s not enough. You need to build a strong presence on all the major and popular social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
3. Build Up A Contact List
Having a strong list of media contacts will be a helpful resource. This could include bloggers, podcasters, social media influencers, reporters and more. What will be even more helpful is establishing relationships with each of these contacts. Build a network and enrich it with strong relationships.
4. Set Up An EPK
Build an electronic press kit which packs a punch. Include photos, a bio, your biggest hits, social media links and anything else you think might help. When you communicate with media contacts, they will want to find out information about you. You need to have control over the narrative, and you can do this by communicating a comprehensive set of information that you want them to know. Your best hope of any public relations success is to be the only source of information they use.
Your Bio is perhaps the most important part of your EPK. You can help it to hit the right note by checking out our recent article on writing a killer bio. Writing a Killer Bio! | Identity Music.
5. Provide Professional Contact Details
This may seem ridiculous. But it makes all the difference. A reporter is going to reconsider reaching out to you if your email is something like “DonkeyKingSass@gmail.com”, unless your band’s name is Donkey King Sass, which I highly doubt. Create an email address that is professional like firstinitial.lastname@gmail.com or bandname@gmail.com
6. Prioritise and Target
There are countless numbers of blogs, forums, influencers and journalists out there. You simply will not have time to contact everyone on the planet. Often general targeting is not the most effective way to go and focusing on targeting relevant people will help you get further.
Have a press list and a streamlined “key contacts” press list. This way you can really focus on building your relationships and maximising coverage potential with your key contacts whilst having a more general list for blanket coverage.
If you can nurture your relationships and have a couple of key hubs for sharing your content, you likely won’t even need the more general contacts. A few well-placed articles can provide a lot of press coverage.
7. Be Data-Driven
They key to success with any form of marketing, promotion and publicity is data. It is the only way to measure the potential and the results of any opportunities. Use the data to guide your decisions and focus on pursuing opportunities with the most impact.
8. Be Interesting
In this day and age, there isn’t a massive benefit in being the first place to break an artist. It used to carry a lot of weight, but it just doesn’t anymore. You need to provide some kind of value to the blogger or reporter. Be interesting. If they find you interesting, they will be more likely to think their readers will and go ahead with the article.
9. Do Interviews
An interview is a wonderful thing. You will get a good level of coverage and likely develop your relationship with the journalist in a good way. Some artists choose not to share much on social medias, and this is a really good way to show more layers to who you are. For a journalist, they will be able to ask the questions they know the readers are dying to ask!
10. Invest Your Time
If you are just starting out with PR you will be on the backfoot. The media outlets will have no idea who you are and you will be just one of thousands of messages hitting the inbox on a weekly basis. PR is all about building your reputation and your relationship. Invest your time in customising your approach and developing your relationships. Your success will be a reflection of the time you put in. Research the work of the blogs and the writers, get an understanding of who they are and how you can mutually benefit each other. A personal touch will always increase your chances of a response.
Are you looking to get your music out there? With Identity Music you can get your music all over the globe in order to gain the maximum exposure. By using our distribution and music promotion services, you’ll be able to take control while watching your music reach new heights.
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