How to exploit the music media and get the widespread exposure you deserve (continued…)
- 20somethingmedia
- Jan 17, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2024
Continuing from last weeks article…
What do I want media people to do?
Run-of-the-mill music promoters toss literature about themselves to the media and leave it up to the media person to decide what to do next. But you won’t do this. Remember, with few exceptions, the only reason you invest time and money to correspond with someone about your music is to motivate them to act!
Therefore, you will spell out your email messages and cover letters, in no uncertain terms, what you want recipients to do. Call, email, come to your gig, listen to your CD, download your MP3, wait for your follow-up call… whatever it is, ask them politely, yet very specifically, to do it.
Note: That doesn’t mean media people will automatically do what you ask – more often than not, they won’t. But at least you will have answered that nagging but all-important question: What happens next?
When do I want media people to take action?
A few years ago (one music commentator recounts), I received a press kit from a musician who wanted me to write about his band. It was similar to hundreds of other packages I’ve received over the years. The accompanying pitch letter went on and on about what his band had done, how much the letter-writer thought of himself, and that he wanted to appear on the cover of Spotlight, the music magazine I published.
(Note: You should never ask for a “cover story” on your band. That’s a decision the editor makes based on what’s best for the publication, regardless of who asked for it.)
However, nowhere in this guy’s letter did it specify what he’d do next to further the process along. In essence, he was saying:
“Here’s a bunch of stuff about me and my needs. Now it’s your job to figure out what it is I want you to do now to stroke my inflated ego even more. It doesn’t matter if I hear from you today, next month or next year, and you may not hear from me ever again. The thing that’s most important is that I’ve given you more material to fill your trash can with!”
Lesson: This craziness must stop! If it seems I’m being hard on this guy, it’s only to prove a point: Spell out all of the things you have to offer media people and then kindly give them specific marching orders (in a casual and friendly manner) on what they should do next – and what they get from you when they do it.
That’s what effective music marketing is all about!
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