Browsing the Internet to find material for our upcoming interview with Publicity virtuoso Lainie Copicotto of Aurelia Entertainment, I came across the Artists House Music website. It is a non-profit “reference library” packed with vital information across a broad spectrum of music industry topics for musicians. The material is well-organized, videos are slick, and the contributors are top-notch. The Herb Albert Foundation funds the website and states its goal as helping musicians “navigate the challenges and maximize the opportunities available to them within the music industry”. A noble cause, it is.
The site runs a series of short videos – 9 in total- of Curtis Smith of Maelstrom PR, who has an impressive resume that boasts a long list of artists ranging from Marilyn Manson to Johnny Cash. The videos cover the fundamentals of music PR. They are a must watch and you can find them here.
I took the liberty to pick the one that talks to the 101 of the publicist’s role and share my notes along with it.
(1:42) “It basically is trying to get as much positive media attention as we can on the artist. It’s basically what it is.
(2:14 ) “we don’t book shows but we help booking agents when we promote their shows”
(2:30) “we do not do marketing”
(2:40) “…What we’re trying to do is get an endorsement from the critics, which in its essence free advertising so to speak”
(3:00 ) “It is mainly the endorsement. When you are dealing with display ad, anybody can take out the ad if you have the money. But when it comes down to persuasion, when it comes down to actually convincing the writer that the band is newsworthy…..that’s more of an endorsement”
(4:40 ) “Typically a campaign runs based off of a magazine’s lead time…So a typical campaign is usually between 3 and 6 months for lead time”
Throughout the interview, Curtis Smith keeps coming around to the idea of “creating a story around the artist”. So bringing it all together; the Publicist’s job is to persuade the opinion leaders in the media to endorse the artist by creating a marketable story around him/her.
So how do you a create a highly marketable story around a musician? Well, that’s for our next post and we will ask that question to Lainie Copicotto, who is helping Paul Van Dyk and Felix Da Housecat’s of the world everyday with her out of this world PR talent. Stay tuned.
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Tags: Aurelia Entertainment, Curtis Smith, electronic dance music, Lainie Capicotto, music publicity, publicist, Publicity definition
Steve:
Liked this video