Social Media and Music PR: The State of Play as Told by Publicists and Artists

Social Media and Music PR: The Current State of Play as Told by Publicists and Artists By Alex Burton, Get Fresh USA Social Media and Music PR: The State of Play as Told by Publicists and Artists 11/02/2009 The music industry is a tumultuous place. Its troubles are no secret and as jobs are axed, spending decreases, and executives fight the advancement of the digital age, everyone hopes that solutions will be found to bail out a sinking ship. But record companies aren’t the only part of the industry that need to adapt to changes in technology. Social media has provided new and unique opportunities for instant communication, rapid dissemination of information, and creative approaches to business. To get a clearer picture of this changing landscape and how it’s affecting the broader music industry, I interviewed a number of artists and publicists about social media and how they use it. I’ve gathered my findings into a three-part essay, which you are reading now. Part one will deal with publicists, part two with artists, and part three with my conclusions and ideas about how to move forward. Social Media and Music PR: The State of Play as Told by Publicists and Artists Introduction by Jesse Cannon If you thought the music industry was hard to navigate 5 years ago, today you probably feel like someone has dosed you with LSD. With so much changing so fast, it can be a full time job just to keep up with a cursory knowledge of how to navigate the options music promotion. The following essay explains the changes that have happened in social media and how publicists and artists are adapting to them. Read on to help yourself get a clear perspective of the current state of social media in music PR, its future, and how to get your head around it. Jesse is editor of the popular music portal Musformation. He also runs Cannon Sound Foundation in Union City, NJ and has produced and engineered music for the likes of The Cure, Animal Collective, Saves the Day, Dillinger Escape Plan, and more. PART 1: Publicists Billboard Magazine recently posted their Maximum Exposure List, a list of new and effective ways to reach large audiences and expose new music. The magazine enlisted a panel of 20 experts in marketing and publicity to assist in compiling this list. The results were typical of the industry with ideas like: have a song covered on American Idol, get a cover story in Rolling Stone, and perform live on Oprah. It reminded me of when I played music and I’d get unhelpful advice from family and friends outside of the industry. “You guys should go on tour with U2,” they’d suggest. “That would definitely help your career.” They’d explain as if I didn’t know. The problem with the article is that these outlets aren’t new at all. Additionally they are available only to artists already at the top, not artists who are on their way there. In fact the closest the list came to embracing new media was suggesting that publicists secure a video link on PerezHilton.com or have a video on You Tube’s Most Viewed Videos page. Given that there was a panel of publicists and marketers involved in this list made its content even more shocking. Is the industry really this out of touch? Furthermore, are publicists not adapting to new technologies? “It has completely changed the PR landscape,” says Lori Mahon, the principal at Overture Media, in Franklin, TN. “If a publicist isn’t getting their feet wet with social media they are going to look back next year and wonder where everyone is. It’s a new tool; instant communication!” “It’s impossible to ignore, and anyone who does is setting themselves up for failure” says Francesca Caldara, the in-house publicist at Equal Vision Records, a popular indie label with one of the best track records in music today. Francesca and Lori are not alone as other publicists repeated those same sentiments in some form or another. Social media has made the transfer of information instantaneous. We can now find out the latest news as it happens, without the filter of major news networks. Artists continually break via word of mouth, viral videos, and strong grassroots fanbases. They often seem to jump into the mainstream overnight, although in reality these artists are likely to have used social media to propel themselves to success. “Print magazines have been late because of their 3 month lead times, while the blogs and webzines post information within days,” says Caldara. “Now those blogs and webzines are late because of sites like Twitter where people post about something instantaneously and it spreads in seconds. Individuals are determining the news now and the press is just playing catch up.” With all of this fast communication it makes it easier for bands, labels, and publicists to stay in sync and have real time impact on their PR campaigns. “I will help my bands set up accounts on social media networks if they haven’t already,” says John Kasiewicz, principal of 440PR. “I walk them through basic strategy for their specific social network and encourage them to post and express their own voice through those mediums. Usually fans know when it’s the publicist posting rather than the artist. Musicians now have the ability (and some would say the responsibility) to engage in a more personal role with their fans online.” Beyond just advising bands on social media, some publicists are partnering with their artists in developing and executing a content strategy that can reach across across multiple channels for maximum impact. “We were twittering and posting on Facebook very frequently as a team, not just PR,” says Mahon of her recent campaign with Christian rock band Thousand Foot Krutch. “I also re-tweet my bands’ posts or they re-tweet links of reviews I post.” Mahon also credits social media sites like Twitter and YouTube in developing momentum for some of her less mainstream bands. “We have to think outside the box and find other avenues when we’re going against more popular, streamline projects,” she says. At The Beggars Group of Labels, Sonya Kolowrat emphasizes the impact of social media on some of her biggest successes. “We’ve had to adapt a lot since the introduction of blogs… people want a ton more online content,” says Kolowrat. “Vampire Weekend has been my most successful campaign. It was a perfect storm of a band’s hard work, key early supporters, and of course some key blogs.” Recognizing the importance of walking the walk, Caldara, Mahon, Kolowrat, and Kasiewicz all blog, and use social media to discover new artists to work with. “I check out bands on Myspace all the time,” says Grace Jones of Tell All Your Friends PR, in New York. “I often find them on there and if they’re not already represented, I move forward.” While the importance of social media meets no objections here (an overwhelming majority of those interviewed listed social media as “very important”), they are all quick to caution that it’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. “One of the biggest mistakes I see publicists make is focusing on the latest social media trends and not spending enough time tailoring a campaign to fit an artist,” says Kasiewicz. “I still believe everyone can still benefit from some traditional PR.” Mahon has a similar take. “Relationships are the most important aspect of PR,” says Mahon. “When you have a trusting relationship with a media outlet, manager, band member, and label, you are successful. Social media is a good center to begin a PR campaign, but I still keep many elements of traditional PR.” “My job is tailored around traditional PR models,” says Kolowrat. “It’s important to know your outlets and the journalists you pitch to. This is such an email society but sometimes you just need to pick up the phone. It helps to build and maintain personal relationships, which are very important.” After all, in addition to crediting bloggers with much of Vampire Weekend’s success, she points to the band’s coverage in The New York Times and The New Yorker as campaign highlights. “I cultivate relationships with specific journalists daily,” says Caldara, an admission I heard repeated by the other publicists in this article. “There are a few people I was friends with before I started at Equal Vision and those relationships are the strongest and I tend to get the most coverage from them.” While I am dismayed by Billboard’s aforementioned article, its lack of inventiveness, and total disregard for new media tools, I am happy to discover that some of my music industry peers are eagerly embracing social media’s importance. Whether they’re teaching their artists to use these tools strategically, using social media in concert with their artists to maximize its impact, or simply disseminating news, they are all taking steps to adapt to a changing way of doing business. “Actually a lot of the media outlets I work with are now on Twitter,” says Mahon. “So it’s a great instant tool to get info out on our artists. As social media invades the PR world things will evolve in ways I can’t even imagine. But that is exciting!” It is this readiness to adapt that will ultimately keep PR a relevant profession, as they are balancing traditional PR with new media opportunities. The rules are changing and roles are becoming less defined, but PR seems to know that. “Our marketing department utilizes social media more than I do and may place ads on Facebook and build fan pages,” says Kolowrat. “That hasn’t been my job (yet)!” PART 2: Artists For the last two years, Myspace has been in a serious decline. The once mighty powerhouse of social networking is losing U.S. based traffic (according to Mashable it’s dropped 20% since June) and its revenue is drying up. In its heyday Myspace was an easy tool to understand for artists: get friends and get plays. It produced results while giving a pretty good indication of the scope of their fan base. As new sites popped up with better designs, easier navigation, and more unique options Myspace began to lag, and today it sits not forgotten, but certainly crippled. “When Myspace first came out it helped The Sleeping a ton, but it seems to have lost its engine and not many people visit the site anymore,” says Doug Robinson, singer for New York based rock band (and Victory Records veterans) The Sleeping. “There are so many social media sites now that I honestly have no idea which are the most important or will be the most important in the future.” “There’s just too many bands,” says Ryan Lallier, guitarist for Big Surrender. Lallier’s former band, Waking Ashland, did time on Tooth and Nail and Immortal before disbanding in 2007, and he notes how things have changed since then. “I think social media has a negative effect,” he says. “I know how annoyed I get with bands bugging me to listen to their music and I can’t help but think people are annoyed by us and consider us the same as the other millions of bands on the internet. I never got into it.” It is these types of frustrations I see repeated over and over as I speak with artists. There are a plethora of different networks, all clogged with competition and different methods of communicating, and many bands don’t know the best ways to use these tools. It’s a general feeling of being overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin. “The internet is the most useful promotional tool of all time for musicians,” says Jordan Powers, whose band, Far-Less, put out several records with via Tooth and Nail before throwing in the towel in the spring of 2009. While he recognizes its importance, Powers readily admits he’s unsure of how to use it effectively. “We tried to blog and we had a Myspace and Facebook but we didn’t really know how to use them the right way. We were just kind of clueless,” he says. Given social media’s connectivity and its ability to reach broad audiences, shouldn’t properly managing these outlets be a priority not just for artists but for publicists as well? Isn’t this an opportunity to develop innovative and strategic methods of public relations? Is it wise to assume bands are able to manage these technologies effectively on their own? Shouldn’t publicists and artists be communicating with each other more than ever? “We never spoke to our publicist,” says Josh King of Drive Thru Records act House of Fools. “Our publicist just put a B between the P and the R and then drank it,” he says smugly. “In Waking Ashland we had an in-house publicist and an outside publicist but we almost never spoke to them,” says Lallier. “I don’t think they used innovative methods, they still deal mainly with print.” These feelings of exclusion and the obvious lack of band input seem to be the norm here. “We always wanted to be involved with our PR but no one ever considered our opinion,” says Powers. “It became a problem that was never really resolved and toward the end of our band we really resented the fact that they didn’t consult with us more.” Of course this prevalent publicist neglect doesn’t exist across the board. “We speak to our publicist almost twice a week and are very involved in our PR,” says Evan Winiker of Steel Train. While Winiker’s publicist at Big Hassle doesn’t directly operate their social media sites, it is obvious that the band is adept at using them. Currently enjoying a lengthy tour supporting Hanson, Winiker regularly updates Steel Train fans with photos and videos from the road, as well as commentary and info about the shows. “We covered Living On a Prayer with Hanson last night,” read a recent update on Winiker’s Facebook. A bevy of “likes” and comments ensues. This ability to develop and maintain a conversation with fans is a major benefit of social media. “With newer social media outlets, publicists can get information more directly to listeners,” says Jonathan Steingard, whose band Hawk Nelson is represented by Lori Mahon at Overture Media. “Our publicist is involved with our use of all our social media sites.” Steingard also blogs regularly and credits his publicist not only with assisting in Hawk Nelson’s social media activities but also working with the band to create effective content. Steingard and Mahon’s social media collaboration enables Hawk Nelson to cut through the overwhelming mass of competing artists and information to push the Hawk Nelson brand. “Social media has crowded the “airwaves” with so much music that many people don’t know what to listen to,” says Steingard. “The term “my favorite band” uses to mean a lot more than it seems to now. Fans demand and require a fairly constant flow of news, information, and other tidbits from their favorite bands.” And so Steingard and Mahon work together to give the people what they want by keeping a consistent image across all social networks, using similar art themes and relevant content to link their sites together. They also use Facebook to run contests and Twitter to spread news and information. This kind of collaborative relationship is the type of thing that Powers, Lallier, King, and Robinson all long for. “We try and use all of these tools,” says Powers, “But we just don’t know how to do it the right way. We would love for some one to show us.” While bands are capable of taking the initiative to learn these tools on their own, not everyone understands how to interact with the media and the public like a PR professional does. The publicist/client relationship should be a close one of mutual exchange. After all, the success of a client benefits the publicist as well as the artist. To that end publicists and bands should be mutually invested in developing not just print strategy, but also successful interactive social media strategy. Myspace has lost much of its power and new trends have emerged. Artists that relied too heavily on Myspace’s former promise of glory are now trying to play catch up with new media. Keeping current with social media changes is the best way to engage new communication and networking tools to great effect before they become irrelevant. “It’s inevitable that today’s social network of choice will be tomorrow’s “Hotmail” or “Friendster,” says Steingard. “In that sense it’s important not to be too caught up in one single medium.” PART 3: The Future While some in the music industry are embracing social media, there remain significant numbers that aren’t. Notoriously bad at adapting to change, music industry execs at the highest levels still look to nonsense like Billboard’s Maximum Exposure List as a source for creative ideas. But it’s not just the high-ups that are the problem. From the confused artist to the oblivious publicist, social media still lies in the realm of newfangled gadgetry for many. With resounding cries of “I’m in the band, some one else should be doing this,” coupled with publicists that think, “That’s not my job,” the progress being made of incorporating social media into PR is slow, and so begs the question, are we doing enough to incorporate social media into our PR strategies when breaking new bands? Reputation/brand management is an important part of any business. When dealing with new artists or those flying under the radar, reputation/brand may be the most essential tool we have to work with. With limited resources and funds, this is often all a small band has to rely on. All communications affect the development of brand or reputation so all communications should be purposeful, with an eye on the consequences of said communications. With the prevalence of social media we can monitor fan and market response for any artist in real time, and adjust our strategies accordingly. Since this is new technology, it doesn’t officially fall under anyone’s specific responsibility. In the music industry the boundaries are becoming more blurred everyday and this is an opportunity for publicists to become a more important part of a band’s career. It is a chance to have longer, more involved relationships, constant campaigns, and larger impact. It is the evolution of music PR to a more encompassing level, blending elements of marketing, management, and publicity into a new kind of organized, team oriented, personal approach. There are several examples as to how social media is already being leveraged in new ways. If you follow social media strategy, you’ve likely heard of Frank Eliason. As a manager of a customer service group at Comcast, Frank took the initiative to start tracking mentions of the company on Twitter and began reaching out to frustrated Comcast users addressing their customer service issues. Frank’s team now handles hundreds of messages a day and thousands of emails a month using the “ComcastCares” handle on Twitter. The effort has done wonders for the company’s reputation for customer service, and it’s all been accomplished by using social media to respond to customer complaints as they happen. Another great success story is that of Dell, who has made $3 million from Twitter in the past two years. By offering exclusive Twitter deals, Dell Outlet deals, and outlet specific information via its DellOutlet Twitter handle, the company has grown to one of the site’s most followed users. The best part is that DellOutlet followers evangelize the company and retweet the outlet-specific info, spreading the company’s message even further. Recently Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls made headlines by making $19,000 on Twitter in 10 hours. How? Simply by engaging her fans. She started with a spontaneous hash tag Twitter conversation, as the discussion progressed she designed a t-shirt related to the chat and put it on her online store while the chat was still happening. Four hundred shirt sales later and she’s sitting on $11,000. A few nights later during a similar Twitter convo, she started auctioning off random items from her apartment and custom-made postcards, taking in another $6,000. A few days later she tweeted about a donation only show for her Twitter fans, and brought in another $2,000. As Palmer so eloquently puts it, “Total made this month from using Twitter: $19,000. Totally made from 30,000 record sales: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.” Obviously not everyone can make this kind of money in a few hours, but the key thing to note is that Palmer accomplished this by using social media in a new and creative way to engage her fan base and deliver results. Not only did she make a significant amount of money, but she made headlines in the blogosphere and beyond. A recent article in Advertising Age noted that nearly 30,000 journalists have left the profession since the beginning of 2008. This isn’t really surprising considering the faltering numbers of print media. The article then goes on to explain how major corporations are using social media to bypass the journalist and pitch directly to the consumer. Coldwell Banker, Best Buy, and MasterCard have all enlisted their PR agencies to develop unique, original YouTube content to engage their customers directly, resulting in accurate, measurable, results. While none of these examples are directly related to breaking new bands, they all represent the utilization of social media in new and exciting ways. They are delivering results and creating buzz not only amongst customers and fans, but throughout the business world as well because of their clever usage of PR. If this kind of innovation can exist outside of the music industry, then why can’t it exist within it? It is time that we caught up with the cutting edge ways of doing business. In an industry notorious for dragging its feet in embracing new mediums and technologies, it shouldn’t be difficult to make a splash. And we can do it starting with PR. As Francesca Caldara from Equal Vision said in Part One of this essay, “Individuals are determining the news now and the press is just playing catch up.” While I believe there will always be a place for traditional PR, it’s time that we take the next step forward. Alex Burton is the founder of Get Fresh USA, a New Jersey based PR firm specializing in new media strategies within music. Having spent the last decade as a touring musician signed to a prominent indie label, Alex decided to branch out into PR with his own unique approach. “As an artist I know what my clients are looking for in a publicist. I take a very artistcentric approach because that’s how I always wanted to interact with my own publicists,” says Alex. Additionally, Alex is passionate about social media and works closely with his artists to educate them on how to best utilize these new tools. Alex holds a B.A. from Rutgers University in Journalism and Media Studies, and blogs about social media and the music industry at http://www.GetFreshUSA.com. Contributors I’d like to extend a very special thanks to the following for their valuable input and generous time. Additionally I’d like to thank Jesse Cannon for his introduction and input. Publicists: Overture Media The Beggars Group of Labels Tell All Your Friends PR Equal Vision Records 440PR 60 Cycle Media Artists: House of Fools Far-Less The Sleeping Steel Train Hawk Nelson Waking Ashland Big Surrender