What Do Music Pr Companies Do?

Music PR companies are hired by record companies or directly by artists themselves. They are asked to generate press coverage for a particular artist’s albums, singles, concerts, and very occasionally non-musical events such as political activity or books. (Some artists are handled in-house by their record company’s in-house press office - see Chapter 3.)

This can mean anything from getting their act onto the front cover of a national magazine, right down to a small album review on page 37 of the Bristol Evening Post and even includes fleeting mentions in gossip columns that might not have anything whatsoever to do with music! Whenever you read something about music in the press you can be sure that, somewhere along the way, a music PR was involved.

• A music PR’s first duty is to assemble and keep up-to-date the widest, most detailed bank of information possible on the people they need to target: i.e. journalists and editors of music magazines, the arts/music pages of newspapers and magazines, as well as freelance journalists and relevant music websites. They to know these people on a first-name basis, and have some idea of their likes, dislikes and the general editorial policy of their publication. They must also keep track of staff changes.

• They work out where best to concentrate their efforts for the particular album, single, concert or other project they have been asked to publicise. Which publications will be most interested in this band or artist? Which will probably hate it? The saying ‘all publicity is good publicity’ is bunkum when it comes to music PR. A scathing review can sometimes get the music PR into big trouble .. .

• They will then send out a press release (an A4 sheet -sometimes longer - containing punchy, persuasive information about the artists and the album), a biography (information on the band, how they met, where they are from, their past work, etc.) and a ‘promo’ CD if publicising a record (usually in a plain plastic sleeve) several weeks before it is released. A week or two later they follow it up with phone calls, emails and perhaps the odd attempted bribe (lunch, a drink, a trip abroad to meet the band if the journalist promises to write something, although this is increasingly frowned upon, to the chagrin of many journalists!), all pushing for a mention in print of their band/artist.

• They also organise guest lists for concerts - and if it’s a hot ticket they’ll be so inundated with requests they have to be selective.

• If press activity is generated, the PR oversees it all. This means escorting the artists to the journalists, or vice, organising any travel and seeing to everyone’s needs from pounding the streets for the particular type of sandwich the artist wants (a PR I know once ran around the whole of Soho looking for a poached salmon sandwich for a classical composer she was looking after) to buying the journalist a drink while they wait around.

• They then collate any press coverage and present it in a report to the record company. After this they are the go-between between journalists and artists for any follow-up matters or general enquiries.

• An independent PR agency will often also be involved in their own A&R (see Chapter 3 if you need a reminder of what this term means): seeking out good, unknown bands through demos they are sent, by attending gigs and through their contacts within the industry. They then approach and offer to represent hot new bands who are looking for a record label - this way they are on board from the beginning.

• Frequently, good PRs are consulted by the record company on A&R decisions such as which single from an album would be the best one to release, what the release date should be, and when and where gigs should take place.

• They also organise promotional photo sessions for bands: booking studios, sourcing photographers and so on.

• There is often someone on the team, usually a junior, who specialises in regional press: dealing with local newspapers and listings magazines and so on. This person often services student publications as well.

Different Types Of Music Pr Companies

No surprises here. There are big companies and small ones. Many household name bands and artists are with big PR companies like MBC (Madonna, Dido and others), Coalition or Hall Or Nothing, but it does not necessarily follow that small companies never handle any major clients. You see, bigger does not necessarily mean better.

A small company, perhaps with only two or three staff but a warm, efficient approach, can generate an awful lot of goodwill and column inches, while a bigger (perhaps bossier) one can find its loftiness actually backfires, aggrieving journalists and creating bad press. Smaller PR companies with great reputations and usually smaller, more ‘niche’ artists include Hermana, Stone Immaculate and ID Publicity. Furthermore, allegiances are notoriously fickle in this area – bands have been known to switch PR company with each new album. There are also dedicated online and regional PR companies.

The Highs And Lows Of Working In Music Pr

Lows

Now for the bad news. When celebrities talk about their publicists it’s easy to imagine that all who work in the music PR world spend all their time eating expensive lunches, fighting off paparazzi and jetting off to LA. Not true. The work can – especially for someone starting out – be boring, difficult and not remotely glam.

You need to be diplomatic, thick-skinned and patient all day long. Musicians and journalists must be two of the most stubborn and elusive types of people there are, and lucky old you will be dealing with both!

Bear in mind that often a band or artist will just want to concentrate on the music and let it speak for itself: it is their contract with the record company that obliges them to jump through various press and promotional hoops. They can, on occasion, be difficult. Journalists can be impossible to get hold of – you’ll speak to their voicemail more than to them – and rude and unhelpful when you do reach them. Many PRs would say dealing with journalists is the part of their job they hate the most!

Being so crucial to an artist’s success or failure, fame or famine, you won’t be surprised to hear that enormous pressure is exerted on PRs to develop to the max the public image of their artists, especially if large sums of money have been invested. If a PR doesn’t deliver they will not be given any more work for that artist. Sometimes it can feel as if the whole world is against them . . .

Getting In The Door

See Chapter 2 for further suggestions on getting a job.

An entry-level job will normally be as a junior PR, or office junior, doing pretty menial work: press cuttings, photocopying, envelope-stuffing, taxi-ordering, post, etc. After some time you would begin to do some regional press. From this you can rise to being a proper PR with decent acts to oversee and a lot more travel and fun. With enough experience under their belts some PRs eventually set up their own company, work exclusively for one artist as their personal publicist or manager, or take up a better paid, in-house senior role within a record company.

Consider the following:

• Do you really have the right sort of personality to be a PR? It sounds rather blunt, unkind and prejudiced, but music PR is a field in which a plummy accent, smart suit and clean shoes won’t do you many favours, nor necessarily will excellent educational qualifications. Most music PRs rate the right sort of personality much, much higher than any of these. Are you the sort of person who feels at home in pubs and clubs, can stay up late - but still get up for work the next day? Do you find it easy to talk to people and make friends? Could you talk favourite cocktails with a journalist one minute, and break up a fight between a member of a rock band and a passer-by (believe me, it has happened!) the next?

• When applying to a PR company, check which artists the company looks after. Make sure you know a handful and have an opinion on them. Go and see a few of them live or buy their albums. Do they have a selling-point? Perhaps they met in prison, are Icelandic, or a brother-and-sister act, or have a particularly distinctive vocalist. How would you try to convince a journalist to do a feature about them?

• Familiarise yourself with the main music press: specialist magazines like Q, Mojo, Uncut, Muzik, Smash Hits and NME plus the music sections of the main newspapers. See how different they are in their likes and dislikes, their style, the amount of coverage they give to music. For example, would the Daily Mirror be likely to do a two-page spread on a little-known American heavy-metal band? Would Mojo ever wax lyrical over Dannii Minogue?

• Be cool. What I mean by this is: don’t let them think you’d act star-struck when faced with an artist. Be professional and down-to-earth. The employer will want to be able eventually to entrust you with looking after an artist all day - eating, drinking, travelling with them, seeing them at their jetlagged, hungover worst -and know you won’t be asking for an autograph for Aunty Glenda, or acting like a 13-year-old schoolgirl/boy face-to-face with Gareth Gates. Even the man who escorts Kylie around all day is expected to stay cool. And that can’t be easy, can it?

Case Study: Alison Millar, Age 21, Hermana Pr, London

‘After my A-levels at 18, I went straight to Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in High Wycombe, to study music industry management and marketing. I started working at Hermana while I was there. I knew that if I wanted to get a job in music I’d have to get a bit of work experience behind me, so I sent my CV off to loads of companies.’

‘Hermana PR got back to me after my CV was passed on to them by another company I’d been contacting about work experience. I came in on my days off uni and did mailouts, photocopying, regional press and other bits and bobs. I did that for most of my three-year course. When I graduated in the summer of 2002 I was lucky enough to be offered a full-time job with the company! Now I do all the regional and student press – both on releases and when someone plays shows around the country. As well as that there are mailouts to be done and other jobs such as photocopying and filing. ’

‘I guess I always wanted to work in music. As a teenager I spent all my money on gig tickets or CDs. I stumbled across the music industry management course by accident and thought it sounded better than doing a geography degree! I got a lot out of my degree – learning about marketing and the music business as a whole, but it’s nothing without actual practical experience. I think most important qualities a music PR needs are organisation and passion. We’re a small company and deal with a massive amount of artists, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Josh Rouse, so you’ve got to be on the ball knowing who’s doing what and when.’

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