Michael J. Media

YOUR MONTHLY DIY PR TIP FROM MIKE FARLEY

HOW TO GET YOUR BAND NOTICED

Last week asked my members of the music industry, be they managers, journalists or musicians themselves, to give some tips on how to get your band more attention. What follows are some of the best responses, and artists, you should heed this advice because it’s all very, very good. Enjoy!

“Make GREAT music. This is harder than it seems, and you will very likely be completely incapable of judging it for yourself. But always strive to be better. There are thousands and thousands of good artists out there, but if your music is GREAT, truly great, then you won't have to break your back to get attention. People will see you play once, or hear your record once, and scream your name in the streets till the end of time. You will know this is happening if and when it does; until then, assume you're not GREAT yet and keep working on every facet of what you do.”—Andy Adelewitz, Paradigm Talent Agency

“Anytime I speak at conventions or bands ask me for advice, I say the same thing: Don't suck. Anything you record, any time you perform in front of people, demand nothing but excellence from yourself and your band mates. There are plenty of clever ways to draw attention to yourself. But if the music isn't there, no one will care. Certainly not in the long run. So: Don't suck.”—Jim Testa, Editor, Jersey Beat

“As a print editor, the biggest problem I've had is that bands don't understand how important it is to have, at the least, a bare-bones bio and hi-res photos of themselves available on the Web. For what we do, art is a big thing. If there's no photo, then your band is just going to get a blurb somewhere towards the back. If you've got a good, eye-catching photo that's in a resolution high enough for print, then your chances of getting prominent placement rise significantly. Bios should always give an idea of who's in the band and what you sound like. Put a phone number on your Web site where you can be reached, too. I tell bands to make sure that they've got at least two color, high resolution (at least 1500 pixels on the longest side) pictures available on their website. Don't worry with black and white - the magazine/newspaper/Web site can do that themselves. "We've got a cool picture that somebody took on our Myspace/Facebook page!" just doesn't work unless you want to see your shot reproduced at a postage stamp size — not to mention the copyright issues running just any old picture from the Web brings up. One more thing — don't go nuts on the photos with lettering, crazy Photoshop tricks or trying to do cutouts or isolations. Editors want a good, compelling picture of your band, whether you're posing, playing, or group bungee-jumping (actually, that'd make a pretty neat shot). If we want fancy stuff, we'll have a graphic designer do it in-house. If every band paid attention to this, my life would be a lot easier. So many groups think they can get by with just a Myspace site. Myspace is great for fans, but it really doesn't serve the needs of editors and reporters writing about bands.”—Jake Hallman, Connect Statesboro editor

”This is hardly a creative answer, but I think the number one thing is persistence. Hands down. If you continue to follow up, someone will listen to your music—even if it’s only to make you shut up. But they’ll hear it.” (ed. Note: as a publicist, this is job security in print!)--Elizabeth Boone, Justine Magazine

“This may not work for everyone and it doesn't always sell me but I love seeing a strong, engaging, hi-res color photo, primarily because my column takes the front of our section and so strong art has a better chance of making the story the lead on whatever day it runs. When I see press releases, I really enjoy reading the artists' thoughts on their album, on music, on their songwriting process, why they do music... or hearing a unique story from their career path, whether it's from some moment as a child or something more recent. Generic press releases with a bevy of superlatives about the artists and their music, along with copious name-dropping, whether it's who the album producer has worked with in the past or who the musicians on the album have worked with in the past, don't excite me because I feel they give little insight into the artist, and sometimes the person/story behind the music is more interesting to me, although the music is generally what hooks me first.”—Naila Francis, The Intelligencer

“Be good, obviously. But beyond that, know which publication you're writing to, respect our deadlines, and be friendly and persistent. And don't send us any f*&^ing attachments! And here's more on the deadline thing…..for example, my deadline is three weeks from the date of your event. THREE. WEEKS. It simply takes that long to put together a paper, period. It's not a blog. My favorite whine: 'Can you just squeeze it in at the last minute?' The last minute was three weeks ago, dude. And now I don't like you. I'm fair as hell, so I won't ever blacklist you or anything, but now I know you don't have your shit together."--Hiya Swanhuyser, Assistant Calendar Editor, San Francisco Weekly

“So since leaving Columbia Records, I'm still working freelance for various artists. One artist in particular, Ari Hest (ironically on Columbia at one point!) brilliantly drew attention to himself by implementing a subscription based marketing program called "52". Tapping into his existing fan base, he supplied them with one song a week, for 52 weeks. For a small subscription fee, you were constantly evolving with Ari and listening to music that may or may not be on his album. This marketing effort drew a lot of attention online as well as in trade press. It also developed an extensive word of mouth marketing campaign, which increased his fan base significantly.”--AJ Mulcahey, indie publicist formerly with Columbia Records

“A few years ago, I began seeing a hip half moon-ish circle surrounding a dot spray painted on sidewalks all throughout Hollywood and even into Burbank. There were hundreds. Just a symbol, with no designation. Reminded me of A Perfect Circle’s symbol but it wasn’t theirs. Curiosity for me grew…was it related to a new Hollywood movie? Was I the only one that noticed or cared? I was really impressed at how many there were, a plan was in place, though I never learned anything until about six months later. In a casual conversation with an industry cohort, the subject randomly came up and not only did they tell me what band had been behind this but as it turns out their drummer Ben (who’s also a publicist) worked for me at one point. I remember him telling me he was in a band at the time but they had yet to record anything. So this was pretty unbelievable because I had no idea. Hi band’s name is Kaura, reminiscent of Tool. Obviously, this kind of campaign will only work if there is eventually a second phase that reveals a web site or band name and could be temporarily foiled if the local community catches said band defacing public property. I’ve seen this work to some extent during SXSW in Austin as well and of course Trent Reznor took this to a whole new level to pre-market his Year Zero release.”—Rob Evanoff, Toucan Cove Records

Mare Wakefield of Performing Songwriter (and a singer/songwriter herself) has an incredible blog that offers first-hand tips on how to best service your music to the magazine:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=62194284&blogID=175337643

“One thing that’s always worked well for me is personalized emails. I know many bands and publicists usually have the time to be specific in every single note, but it’s no different than applying for a job and not using a standard cover letter for every application. Also, via email, DO NOT clutter up the email with too many links to MySpace pages AND remixes AND a zillion other reviews AND a YouTube clip AND some webpage which happens to have an unrelated definition of the band name etc. I’m not big on too many attachments either. Let me hear your music and if I like it, then I will request more info. Leave us freeloading journalists wanting more. Far too often a really unknown band many get left out because the visuals aren’t as aesthetically pleasing as the music. Let the music sell you, unless you’re a really out of leftfield gimmick. Also, a genuine sense of enthusiasm helps. I don’t care if you’ve heard of whatever magazine someone is from, if some journalist is interested in giving you free exposure and publicity, don’t be all ho-hum about it. I’ve moved in different directions many times because of a band’s general indifference to myself or whatever magazine I am representing at the time.”—Seth Fischer, SKUNK Magazine

”For developing artists, having brand uniformity in really important, you most likely have 3-5 profiles on different social networking pages and a website etc. and this is the first impression that you will make on the majority of your potential fans so have the pages be consistent. Above all the music is the most important thing but art work photos, videos and blog posts are all a representation of who you are and if you have insanely different presentations of yourself up on different sites fans will not know who you are get confused. Remember that even though it is just MySpace or Facebook it is YOU so focus on quality not crap. Also, LIVE LIVE LIVE. I have seen a million fancy widgets and games made for bands but seriously none of that is worth anything if you can’t bring it live. Maybe I am just old school but I really don’t think standing on stage pretending not to care makes you “cooler” or less appealing. We, the music fan connect the most to your music when you connect to it.”—Nicole Poulos, Sideways Media

“I really can only speak from the indie magazine side of things but what has seemed to work the best for every magazine I have ran or worked with is constant communication with fans/readers. There is no reason in this day and age why you can't stay in touch with fans through email, MySpace bulletins, e-blasts that let them know what is going on with your band or magazine, etc.... If you aren't out there doing that then someone right behind you that is trying to accomplish the same thing as you, is.” –Jeffrey Kurtis, Guestlist Mag

“When the writer sends you instructions on something….READ IT”.............Peanuts, Sun Newspapers/Ohio Online

“Tour, tour, and tour some more!”—Kelly Stelbasky, Paradigm

”After-parties are a great way. I was in a band last year for about 6 months, after every show we'd have an after-party at a near by hotel with a keg or 2 of beer and everyone was invited. This way you get to talk to the fans directly and they feel like they're friends and not just fans. Fans who turn into friends are more likely to go see you live because they feel connected to you in some way, plus even if someone hated your band, but you give them free beer, they'll come to your shows just for the after-party, and they'll bring friends, and their friends will bring friends. Plus if some of the other bands come to the party that's even better. Then instead of just your band the fans get to party with two bands. "Dude I went and saw band 2 the other night and some band called band number 1 opened, band #1 had an after party and I actually got to meet the singer of band #2!!!" Tight on cash? Use the money you made playing that night, or ask for donations. We got really big in the 6 months we were a band and started seeing the saaaaaame faces at every show and every after-party.”—Matthew Smith, http://www.suburbanhorror.com/

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Thank you!