How people discover music has changed throughout the years. For a long, long time, there were three ways the masses learned about up-and-coming artists and their just-released tunes: via the radio, word of mouth, and the media. Now, there’s social media, countless blogs, and streaming platforms that serve millions of people with names and tunes they’ve never heard before.
While that may be true, the press still plays a vital role in helping rising talents become stars, and hiring a music publicist or PR team is something all musicians should at least think about doing (if they want to make a living via their art). Plenty has been said about how to get your band press attention – music writers, bloggers, playlist makers, and influencers – but not much is written about what to do after the stories have been published.
Read on to learn everything you should do once someone writes about you and your music.
In This Article:
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Check It!
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Thank Your PR Team
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Post It On Social Media
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Share The Publication’s Post
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Add It To Future Outreach
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Think Ahead
Check It!
It’s not often that something written about you and your music will have a glaring error in it, but it does happen, and it’s always better to catch these things right away. If you don’t, writers and editors may be less interested in fixing their mistakes later on, and at that point, who knows how many people will have read the false info?
Tiny mistakes aren’t worth bothering anyone over, but incorrect names, dates, titles, and more are important. If you worked with the publication directly, reach out and very politely point out what’s incorrect, asking very nicely for it to be fixed. If your PR team secured the coverage, make sure they see it and that they’re on it.
Are you thinking of hiring a publicist? Looking create a social media strategy for your band? Give the team at Planetary a call (323) 952-5050
Thank Your PR Team
Assuming you did hire a music marketing and promotions company to pitch your music and your story to writers, you need to thank them when they secure any kind of coverage. Many artists are hoping they’ll end up with a pages-long spread in a magazine, while publicity professionals know there’s a better chance that a quick mention on a social media platform might be what comes out of a lot of effort.
No matter what comes your way, thank your band’s PR team. Positive, negative, tiny, far-reaching…it doesn’t matter. They worked very hard to make something happen for you, and they did it! Getting even a mention is a big deal, and most artists can’t even hope for that, so be plentiful with your compliments.
Post It On Social Media
Once the article is online, share it with your followers! The vast majority of digital publications rely on clicks and ad revenue to survive, so the more eyeballs on a story, the better. You’re helping them out after they’ve helped you. It’s only fair, isn’t it?
Make sure you tag not only the publication, but also the journalist who wrote it! They’ll see that and understand that you are grateful, and that’s the best way to build a relationship.
Also, if the story an outlet published about you performs well and racks up a fair number of reads, they may be willing to cover you again. If you make no effort to promote the piece and the traffic simply isn’t there, why would the blog write about you and your art when you have something else to promote?
Share The Publication’s Post
Chances are, the publication will share the story about you (or that mentions you) on social media, and if it does, you need to amplify it to your audience. Even if you’ve already posted the piece in some manner, helping the outlet’s tweet, Instagram picture or Facebook upload perform better will only serve to endear you to those who work at the company, and that’s always a good thing.
Plus, it looks even more official to not only have a publication cover you and your music, but spread the good word on social media, via its official account.
We’re experts at introducing writers to new bands and singers. Online publicity for musicians is what we do, and Let us help you reach a larger audience than ever before.
Add It To Future Outreach
Now that you’ve secured some kind of coverage, you can include it in the next round of pitches sent out by either you or your PR team. The more pieces that have been published about your work, the more other outlets will be interested in learning about you and your music.
Think about it–if you’re an editor or a writer and you receive an email about a musician nobody’s ever written about, you may think there’s a reason for that. If, however, you open a similar message, only it’s filled with links to past articles, videos, interviews and more, it makes that act look like an established figure, and that makes others want to get in on that exciting rise to the top. Even if all of the clips are from unknown blogs, gathering them together in one place can start to make it seem like you’re bigger and more impressive than some might have otherwise thought.
Think Ahead
Now that you’ve read and shared the article about your latest song, album, or potentially just you, think about what you can do better next time. Maybe the writer had to ask for a photo, which your publicist forgot to include. Perhaps many journalists and editors didn’t enjoy the pictures, so you can try something different at your next photoshoot. Or, it’s possible that nothing worked out, and you need to go back to the drawing board completely and come up with new music, another story, a clever angle, a different headline, and more.
Whatever you do, there’s always something that can be learned from the outcome, and you can always do better next time.
Okay, your new album is almost done, and you want the whole world to hear it. What’s a PR team and how can one take your career to the next level? Call Planetary for help at (323) 952-5050
