Be noted in the music press
Some hints and tips for musicians and their managers on getting better exposure in the music press:
1. Think of how you promote yourself as an extension or embodiment of how you want to present yourself as an artist. Not so much musically, but in terms of your overall professional ethos, and how you’d like press, promoters etc to see you. Concern for quality, attention to detail, accuracy and an appreciation of the bigger picture into which you fit are just as relevant and important in the writing of your publicity material, the selection of your photographs and your all-round willingness to fulfil your side of the logistical bargain, as they are when it comes to your performance onstage.
2. Put yourself in the shoes of the people your biog/press release etc is aimed at – starting with those who know absolutely nothing about you. If you were them, what would you want/need to know? Outline the narrative behind who and where you are as an act – not at exhaustive, blow-by-blow length, but covering the key sequence of events, and being specific about dates and other facts. Anticipate the questions a journalist might want to ask: if you end up being interviewed, and you’ve already supplied all the basic information about when, how and why you formed, what your influences/inspirations are, your highlight achievements to date, and whatever noteworthy/colourful quirks you might possess, then you can use the time during the interview to elaborate on all this, and/or talk about things in more interesting depth.
3. Do your homework and plan ahead. Depending on their format and how often they come out, publications and radio/TV programmes all have different lead times when scheduling coverage. Find out the name of the specific individual you need to contact (arts editor, music editor, programme producer, producer’s PA?), and find out how much advance notice they like to work with – too much can be as unproductive as too little. As a basic rule of thumb, the less often a publication/programme happens, the more notice they need, eg monthly magazines plan much further ahead than daily newspapers. Be patient and prepared to drip-feed – you might send in publicity about two or three gigs and only end up getting a response the fourth time: there’s always a lot of competition for coverage, but even if it seems that a journalist/editor/producer is ignoring you, the fact of your existence (and of course your consistently polished, professional, entertaining promo material) will be noticed and should cumulatively bear fruit.
Sue Wilson is a freelance arts journalist of 20 years’ standing, whose work has appeared in the Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Herald, the Guardian, the Independent, Songlines magazine and other publications.
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