Frequent Asked Questions About Our Promotion Services
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Q: Can you get my music on Spotify playlists?
A: We do promote to Spotify third party playlists as part of an overall PR campaign.
Q: Can you help run my social media?
A: Yes! We offer social media management and advertising services. To learn more about booking a social media campaign, Click Here.
Q: Will you book shows/tours for me?
A: Unfortunately, we can’t offer that service (and – trust us – you wouldn’t want us to anyway!) We do – however – offer tour support for any touring artist. If an active client is touring, we pitch interviews, sessions, and ticket giveaways for supporting stations in tour markets.. We can go after press in tour markets as well.
Q: Do you offer consulting on my songwriting, production, home studio setup, etc?
A: Planetary is strictly a promotion firm. We’re happy to offer advice on which of your songs will work best at radio or press, but the music itself we leave up to you! We do not offer assistance with studio construction or engineering.
Q: Will radio/press promotion boost my social media and streaming numbers?
A: Maybe! Maybe not! While we have had clients see a boost in various analytics throughout a campaign including streaming numbers, social engagement, and website traffic, it’s hard for us to directly tie back any of that directly to our campaigns, especially since oftentimes those areas are only tangentially related to the work we’re doing. We like to think of a record rollout as a puzzle, and radio and press are two pieces that when working in conjunction with everything else will inevitably see results, but they won’t create a full picture.
Q: I have music coming out next week, can you get me a press feature?
A: While it is possible for us to reach out for coverage, it is incredibly difficult to secure press features for music with a week’s lead time. Outlets can plan their publishing schedule at least two weeks in advance (some a month or two ahead!), so we usually ask clients for a full month’s time to effectively pitch and coordinate press features.
Q: Can you promote my music to press and radio at the same time?
A: Of course! We offer tailor-made promo campaigns for whatever your needs might be. While our press and radio departments operate independently of each other, we do offer them together as a package. Depending on the project, the press team will usually kick things off prior to your project’s release date and the radio team will do the bulk of their work after your project’s release. Feel free to get in touch to hear about what options might work best for you!
Q: Do you ever work in conjunction with other promotion companies?
A: Doesn’t team work make the dream work? We’re more than happy to work with clients that also have publicists and teams based in other parts of the world. While Planetary does pitch to outlets and contacts worldwide, we welcome clients that have long-standing relationships with other publicists/companies or want to split up specific markets between PR teams.
Q: How many radio stations and press outlets do you reach out to?
A: It really depends on the type of campaign and genre of music. Some radio campaigns may be as small as 50-75 stations while others may be several hundred stations. On the press side, the scope can be similar while keeping in mind that some outlets have multiple writers and editors who may be pitched.
Q: Is it ok if I reach out to radio stations on social media to thank them for their support?
A: Since not every station is active on social media, we recommend other ways to say a direct and personalized thank you to the MD’s or DJ’s who are spinning the music, like recording station ID’s!
Q: Can you be our/my Manager?
A: We do not manage artists at Planetary. We are strictly a promotion company.
Q: I am looking to take my career to the “next level.”
A: That’s great! You should know pretty much everyone who contacts Planetary Group is looking to take their career to the next level. You should also know that everyone who contacts Planetary Group believes they have transcendent, perfect, never-been-heard, best-kept-secret songs that will show us the face of God. And you should further know that’s never happened—one of our employees DID see the face of God one time, but it was drug related and not at all music related. Sorry.
Publicity is of course a very important part of taking your career to that next level, and radio and P.R. are great ways to get you there; we’re stoked to wake up every day and be a part of that process for artists, it’s what gets us coming into work every day. But we also like to set realistic expectations for what the “next level” looks like for artists, because every person or group we talk to are at very different places in their careers and have different expectations about what radio or P.R. can do for them.
Q: Can you sign me to your label or a label?
A: Planetary Group is not a label. Will a history to point towards at the college and non-comm radio formats, as well as a healthy collection of press clippings, help make the case to a label that you or the artist you represent are worth signing? Absolutely. We work with lots of labels, and many unsigned or self-released projects we’ve worked on have gone on to find label success, but Planetary Group is not a label.
Q: Do you write artist bios?
A: We’re happy to touch up your existing bio, and we use it to create original copy for our pitches, but we don’t generally write new artist bios.
Q: Can I offer a percentage of my sales to you to pay for the campaign?
A: Unfortunately, we do not work on percentage deals. Royalties take a long time to come in – and rent is due now!
Q: Can you set up interviews at radio stations?
A: Yes! While we can’t guarantee they will happen, we’re always happy to reach out to stations with opportunities to further connect with an artist they like. This can mean interviews, concert ticket giveaways, in-studio sessions, etc.
Q: Do you guarantee airplay or coverage?
A: We don’t guarantee anything, as that’s simply not how promotion of any kind works. But Planetary Group has existed for over 25 years, and one of the perks of having been around for that long is that publications, radio stations, editors, and music directors all know who we are and are expecting to hear from us. We like to think our reputation, as well as the hard work we do behind the scenes and the connections we’ve fostered over several decades, will land us something. But we cannot guarantee anything and anyone who says that they can you should be wary of.
Q: What types of music do you work with?
A: All styles. If it’s good – we want to hear it!
Q: Can you get us on Bandcamp or Spotify?
A: You do not need us for that. Bandcamp would be happy to hear from you directly. Spotify, you should get your music on there through a DSP like CdBaby, TuneCore, The Orchard, or one of the many providers out there.