John Raine of Studio Raine, from the labor handbook and the two states' laws. updated
what does a music publicist do?
a music publicist gets your music covered by the press: reviews, features, interviews and premieres. a publicist does not book your shows, which is a booking agent's job, does not run your career, which is a manager's, and does not get you radio play, which is a radio promoter's. the government's handbook describes the wider job as creating and keeping a positive public image for the people and organizations represented, and a music publicist is that job with one kind of client and one kind of news: a release, a tour, a signing.
what a publicist does on a release, in order.
builds the media list for this record
the writers, editors, hosts and producers who cover your genre, found and checked for this release, not copied from the last one. the handbook puts contact with the media at the center of the job, and the list is where it starts. a good list is short and current: the people who ran a piece on a record like yours in the last year.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
writes the press release and sends it
one page: who you are, what the record is, when it is out, the one line a writer can lift, and where to hear it. the handbook names press releases as the thing the job produces, and the send is to the list above, person by person, not a blast.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
gets the record to the list
as private links, files or discs, before the release date, so the people who might cover it have heard it. a stream nobody can open on a phone is the most common reason a pitch dies unread.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
pitches for features, interviews, reviews, premieres and performance slots
the pitch is a short note to one person about why this record fits what they cover. the handbook describes the work as helping clients communicate with the public, and in music the public is reached through those writers and hosts. a premiere is one outlet running the record first; a feature is a story about you; a review is their verdict.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
schedules the interviews and answers the media's questions
when a writer says yes, the publicist sets the time, sends the materials, and handles the questions that come after. the handbook lists answering the media's requests for information as part of the job.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
works tour press in each city you play
a local preview, a listing, a station interview, in each city on the run. it is the same work as the release, done once per market, and it is why a tour and a record are usually one campaign.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
reports what was sent and what came back
who was pitched, who answered, what ran, what was declined. a campaign report is the only way to know what the money bought, and a publicist who does not send one is not finished.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
collects the clippings
every piece that ran, as a link and a copy, in one place. the clippings are the press record, and the press record is what the next publicist, the next label and the machines read when they decide who you are. a page on your own domain that holds them is the press kit.
source:US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Public Relations Specialists
what a publicist does not do.
- book your shows. in California, procuring engagements for an artist is what the Labor Code defines a talent agency as doing, and the next section requires a license from the Labor Commissioner to do it. that is the booking agent's job, and a publicist gets the shows covered, not booked.
source:California Labor Code 1700.4
- run your career. New York's law carves managing performers out of the definition of an employment agency where seeking engagements is only incidental to it, which is to say managing is its own business. a manager directs the plan and the team; a publicist works the media.
- get you radio play. the FCC's rules require a station to disclose on air when it was paid or promised something for airing material, and a radio promoter is the person who works station music directors within those rules. a publicist pitches writers and hosts, not programmers.
the part of this we build.
Studio Raine does not place stories with journalists. we build what a publicist sends and what the press leaves behind: the press kit as a page on your own domain, with the biography and its sources, the photo set, every credit linked to its record and the clippings, $7,500 a kit, on the press kit page. the firms that do the placing are on music PR firms in New York, each with what its own page says it does and charges. a label that wants the press record kept current across a roster takes the marketing retainer.
questions.
what is the difference between a publicist and a manager?
a publicist gets you press. a manager directs your career and your team. New York's law describes managing as its own business, separate from seeking employment for the artist, and a publicist does neither of those: a publicist works the media.
what is the difference between a publicist and a booking agent?
a booking agent procures engagements: shows at venues and festivals. in California that is a licensed activity under the Labor Code's talent agency sections. a publicist gets those shows covered, and does not book them.
what is the difference between a publicist and a radio promoter?
a radio promoter puts your record in front of station music directors, within the FCC's rules on disclosing paid airplay. a publicist deals with writers, editors and hosts, and does not work radio.
do musicians have publicists?
yes. most records on a label with a release plan have one for the campaign, and the music PR firms on our New York list publish their rosters on their own sites. an independent artist usually hires one for a release or a tour rather than year round.
does a publicist guarantee coverage?
no. a publicist controls the pitch, not the editor's answer, and a firm that promises a placement is selling an advertisement, which the outlet would have to mark as one. what a publicist can promise is the work: the list, the release, the pitches and the report.
do I need a publicist for a single?
for a single, one announcement does the job: a release written and sent to the right list. a campaign of several months is for an album, a tour or a story worth a feature. the press kit on your own domain is what either one sends.
what should a label ask a publicist before hiring one?
four things. who is on the media list for this record, and when did each of them last cover a record like it. what the report looks like and when it arrives. what was placed for the last three clients in this genre, with links. and where the clippings will live afterwards, because a campaign that leaves no record on your own domain is spent.
text us the release.
we send back what the press record on your domain should hold before a publicist sends anything, and what we would build.