“Doing traditional PR for independent artists is really difficult, and handling PR on a national level is the most challenging and one of the most discouraging tasks I have ever undertaken,” writes Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, and based on a long post at Music Think Tank where she lays out the obstacles to getting an album covered, you can see where she’s coming from. 40,000 CDs are released every year, which means that in an average week, there are almost 800 albums vying for the 3-10 review slots in any publication. Hyatt rightly points out that music critics keep demanding physical copies when many of them just turn around and sell them to record stores, and when digital copies would do just as well, this seems ridiculous. But from the critics’ perspective, they’re being asked to sort through 800 CDs a week to find the ones worthy of coverage, and that’s more or less physically impossible for one person to do.
Marc Hogan responds:
I used to say I averaged 2.5 packages a day, but it’s been 3, 4, or 5 a day for the past couple of weeks. And that’s on top of the music I’ve already been assigned that nobody sent me. And on top of all the music I’m going to listen to in online-only form, whether individual tracks/videos (for blogging) or albums (often for awareness even if I’m not going to review them). And on top of the music that’s been sent to me or that I’ve bought online that I’m actually expecting and looking forward to hearing. I still try my best to check out music sent to me, especially when it comes directly from a musician, but these are steep odds with a painfully high initial investment.
As the music industry’s demise becomes less of a source of worry and more of an inevitability to be embraced, we can step back and consider the way the system of pop music left itself open to this sort of thing. In every sector of the entertainment industry, “tastemakers” (as Hyatt refers to them) get hundreds of submissions every week. But, as far as I know, the tastemakers in question aren’t critics. They’re the people at publishing houses and movie studios who get paid to do just that—or don’t. The gatekeepers in those industries are stronger, and so instead of a music critic feeling like she needs to pay attention to the output of a shut-in from Duluth while at the same time rendering verdicts on major releases and genre standouts as well as her own personal favorites, studios and publishing houses employ (or, uh, given college credit to) an assistant who occasionally goes through the slush pile; the ones that don’t even get a hearing aren’t sources of guilt, but simply the natural byproducts of the business.
It seems crazy for a critic to have a “reader,” sure. But if they’re the ones who are expected to narrow the field to just the standouts, then it might be a good idea, provided you can train a 20-year-old to recognize your taste. Hyatt’s post represents a kind of confirmation of the anti-DIY argument that breaking down the barriers brings only chaos. Sure, a home-recorded band can conceivably break through to a national audience. But it hasn’t really happened very much, and as long as critics have to wade through 799 hours of haystack to get to the needle, it won’t. Theoretically, if every critic in America randomly selects one random release from their pile and listens to it, then everything will get heard. But based on what Hyatt is saying, that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Pop music, as a system, was a weird beast. It used to have the same sort of unapproachable, big-budget image as the movies. But gradually, the barriers to entry fell, though some still remained. The result was that many people could make somewhat technically proficient art, but unlike writing, which anyone can do, it also required a certain amount of capital investment that seems like it should be recognized somehow. But because it’s supposed to be art, not entrepreneurship, the notion of failure is verboten. A band that doesn’t break through after years of trying didn’t have a bad product—they got a bad rap. Music’s spirit of rebellion etc. meant that failure was success, in a way, and you always have to recognize differences—even if the difference is in quality.
The ugly man behind the curtain in music publicity… [Music Think Tank]
Publicists have been making this same complaint since the dawn of time… and music journos have been selling promo product for just as long. Tapping into the overdone “death of the industry” meme doesn’t really make this any more thoughtful or original.
The depressing thing is that an album has to do pretty decent business to justify $17k in PR expenses on top of whatever other costs were involved. How much pure profit does a single cd even generate these days? Also, how many of the concerns that traditional PR covers are even going to be relevant in a few more years? I’m kinda curious to see if labels are going to end up enfolding the PR wing of things (or the other way around) as the logistics of distribution get easier and the money gets tighter.
Lots of words…no point. Can someone please sum this up for me? My eyes are hurty…
To that, shouldn’t a PR ‘expert’ understand brevity and conciseness?
Hmmm. I agree with a lot of what’s being said, but something about the tone seems off to me. No matter…the points on digital copies are DEAD ON. If it was “all about the music” for these writers then they would suck it up and download it, for the most part. I love the writers who have autoresponders set up to respond to every press release with a request for a CD no matter what. There are tons of these guys who don’t even pay attention to what they receive. And some of them are good, reputable writers!
As someone that deals with music publicists on the regular, I’m happy to receive music via download–I actually prefer it that way. Hell, if it’s a hot release, I’m even good with a link to a stream until release date.
Just because listening to/evaluating music is part of what I do, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m entitled to a finished copy of every CD that comes down the pike. I mean sure, I’m always happy to get stuff I like in finished form. But quite honestly, unless it’s on my short list of favorites, it is indeed going to end up being sold to local music reseller. Space is finite; new releases are soooo not.
@M–N: This is pretty myopic. Labels sign people based on politics and who they know as much as they do the quality of the music. Sure, Kranky’s got a great track record, but plenty of people pass on stuff that’s good. Labels make mistakes. Soooo many people passed on Beck and Arcade Fire it’s hilarious. Secretly Canadian is good, no doubt, but it doesn’t mean that a band with only a CDr is bad.
You’re missing the point. The current system of independant labels is already an excellent filter. For example, I can pretty much trust that anything distributed by Secretly Candian or Beggars Group will be of a relative quality. There are plenty of labels under these distributions all with a distinct flavor, and all pretty good. If a release come out on Kranky of Darla, I can venture a guess at what it may sound like and once again I can be pretty sure about the quality. This is why labels still exist. I’d rather have something from Siltbreeze, than a random cd-r of some band recorded in a basement. Yes, it seems like a silly distinction in that case, but I know that Siltbreeze serves as a first line to remove out some of the dross. When I was a college radio MD, I lagely ignored cd-rs because I knew if a band was actually good and dedicated enough, they could find a likeminded label to release their stuff.
To put things into context DiS gets a sack of post a day. Plus I probably get sent 150′ish links of things I’ve never heard of, per day, to check out. Atop of that there are probably about 10 notable releases that I need to spend some time with, about 5 established acts with new records to digest at any given time and atop of that my eyes probably scan over about 300 band names a day on my RSS reader, etc… my logic is that i usually triangulate things which are getting mentioned a lot.
The few things I end up exposing myself to / listening to each day are usually are from people who’ve worked out my taste, the “oh hai, i see you love The National and released a Metric album on your label…” kindsa communiqués usually get the best response.
The trouble is to get to know many journos (and everyone seems to be one nowadays) is a challenge but to find out what they like isn’t that hard, especially usually google “person’s name” and site:thewebsiteyouwantthemtowriteaboutyou.com but these things take time.
The thing which blows me away is after 8 years of writing (which now reaches 300k people a month), how few of the people who do PR I’ve ever actually met and moreso how the ones who barrage my inbox everyday rarely personalize any of the communication. It doesn’t take much to get to know say the top 10 music websites in your genre or the top 30 music journalists in the world but to learn that it really helps if you’re passionate about discovering music via media or at the very least someone who spends half a day a month reading a range of music media.
Sean
Editor | [drownedinsound.com]