The music industry is booming with artists working round the clock to create a successful path. Standing out in the midst of many requires tenacity of purpose, tact, strategic planning, media publicity and public relations.
Besides finding the suitable media outlets to promote your work, artists need to engage a consummate publicist who can create and implement a public relations strategy tailored to their specific audience and individual goals.
A publicist is someone who takes care of media and public relations on behalf of a musician or music group. Most establishedartists will first interface with their publicists before communicating with the public. The publicist works with the musician’s lawyer, manager and booking agent, and ensures that the artist’s image is duly protected at all times.
What A Publicist Does?
The job of a publicist is to spread wonderful information about their client to the general public. They explore both paid and unpaid channels to tell their brand stories. They convey their stories in an inspiring way; they inspire the audience to pay attention to their clients.
Thus, they network with sponsors, hold special events, write press releases, create social media contents, create media contact lists, create press kits, pitching music news and stories to the media, build awesome relationship with media personalities, and lots more. Publicists have mastered the art and practice of leveraging the power of the media to gain relevance for their clients.
In the music space, the sole responsibility of the publicist is to share their client’s brand stories with the audience that yearns for it. They take pride in creating and conveying compelling narrative for their clients.
Publicists working in the music industry know how to promote their client’s work whether it be an album release, merchandise, event or tour. To maintain your status as a publicist, you need to be consistently focused in your work.
When Do You Need A Publicist?
It is important to note that hiring the services of a publicist does not guarantee exposure. A publicist can help you to develop a viable media strategy, and then your duty is to have a good product, while a publicist talks about it to your audience.
So, before you consider hiring a publicist, make sure you have built a significant followership- this can come in the form of an active social media presence, having good numbers of attendees to your live shows or any possible metric showing that you have loyal fans.
Secondly, make sure your music is compelling- polished and engaging. Thus, it must have the possibility of gaining traction.
How to Get a Music Publicist
The publicist is essentially there to serve as your ‘press agent’. They help you to secure your media and press- related opportunities. Publicists are responsible for pitching news items to blogs, satellite and online radio, newspapers, magazines, television, cable etc.
They are committed to earn more awareness and revenue for the artist. Search online and within your location, you will see a variety of publicists, scrutinize their work and select the one that you feel would perfectly handle your work with professional finesse.
What Questions Should You Ask When Adding A Publicist To Your Team?
Before you hire any publicist to join your team, check their track record of performance and ask the following questions:
What is their performance with other artists? Did they perform creditably well? How are those artists performing? What did other artists say about their work? Seek for feedback from other clients before you engage their services.
Understand who Publicists work with
Publicists works daily with the following people in the music industry- program managers, tour managers, artists, booking agents, media outlets (producers, publishers, bloggers, journalists, editors), radio hosts, photographers, on-air talents, music lessons directors etc.
Here’s what they don’t do
Oftentimes, people have tried to confuse PR with marketing. The role of marketing is to enable you get more followers, sales and streams, while PR is not. However, in an ideal world, both work together to achieve positive results.
A publicist helps you to build the excitement and anticipation of your work, that excitement can help you to generate more sales. Thus, to develop a solid brand and inspire the biggest impact, you need the two working together side by side.
Conclusion
In summary, a publicist is there to sell your unique, memorable stories and brands to the media. As an artist, you need to influence them with your work today; this will motivate them to inspire others within and outside your space.
Send your preferred publicist a short email about your music and personal accomplishments so far, include link to your best work, invite them to your next live event, and tell them why you will like to work with them, request for a physical meeting to discuss terms and conditions of engagement, and thus seal the deal!
Author Bio:
Curtis Dean writes on behalf of Sage Music School where they base lessons on the science and research of the psychology of learning. Their effective teaching methods create confident and capable students who enjoy the happiness of making music.
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