… a blog post from Chairman’s Corner.

Hey hey hey everybody. As someone who’s often striving to get my bands out there and into the public eye, I figured that I’d do a blog post on spreading awareness about musical projects today.

One way to go about getting your band’s name out there is getting press (locally and beyond). Some folks hire PR people to do this, which can be helpful. However, there’s only so much that a PR person can do (even if they’re super experienced). Because the music and print industry is rather chaotic, contacts for publications are constantly changing. Even the seasoned (and expensive!) PR folks might not be able to keep up. The music editor for your local alternative weekly easily may have changed within the last seven days – and you just might need to figure out who’s running the show this week! Some publications and websites might make the email addresses for their writers very easy to find. They may simply list the email contact info for various writers right there on their site (or in the paper). However, quite often it’s not that easy. You may have to do some research to find an email address. You’ll want to pick up the latest copy of the paper (or look at the most recent online listings), and take a look at who’s writing about music currently. At that point, you may have to do an online search of a writer’s name (if no email address has been provided). Perhaps a website will pop up that has their contact info. Email usually seems to be the best way to reach out to writers, but contacting them in other ways might also work (if absolutely necessary). An email address might not pop up for the person that you’re looking for, but you may be able to reach them via social media instead. While this strategy might not be totally ideal, it’s likely better than making no contact at all. You also might be able to talk to other musicians in town who’ve been featured – perhaps they’ll be able to provide you with the contact info that you’re looking for.

Upon making contact with a music writer, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for them to review your material. Ideally, you’ll be able to provide them with just one link to click on, where they’ll be able to access your new single or Bandcamp page, etc. You can attach a band photo to your message as well of course. It’s usually easier for writers to pitch coverage for a show to their editors if you have a new record or EP coming out soon, but if the show is for some kind of special event (or if it’s a high profile affair with well known acts), then that may work as well. Ideally, you’ll want to have some kind of BIO written up for your band as well. If it’s well written enough, you’ll find that some writers just might duplicate what you’ve written in your bio already (while this may be somewhat lazy, it’s usually better than getting no press at all)! Think about what sets your act apart from other performers, and be sure to include that info in your bio.

Getting radio play is also great of course. Some PR folks are very helpful in this field, although they can be quite expensive to hire. If you’re doing it yourself, then you’ll want to find the contact info for the DJ of your choice (locally and beyond), reach out to them, and see if they’d like an MP3 or WAV file of your single. They may want a physical format sent to them as well (vinyl or CD), so it never hurts to offer an actual hardcopy to send out to them also. Perhaps a community radio station will even be happy to sponsor your show (it also never hurts to ask them about that)!

I’ve discussed postering in this space before. Once again…it never hurts! Ideally, you’ll want to create a flyer that’ll grab the attention of folks who are quickly passing by. You’ll also want to make sure that all of the information is clear and easy to read. I’ve often spent long periods of time looking at flyers – just trying to find the actual date of the show that’s being advertised! In some cases, the date wasn’t even on the poster (they spaced it)! You’ll want the date, location, and artist names to be clear on the flyer. While all of this seems obvious, I’ve been amazed at how often I’ve looked at posters without quickly being able to tell ‘when’ or ‘where’ the event in question is taking place. Hopefully, you’ll have some artwork on the flyer that’ll set it apart from everything else that’s going on around town.

Spreading awareness about your act via social media is another obvious promotional tactic, as there are now many platforms out there: Bluesky, FB, insta, TikTok…and all of these are helpful. Many folks only use one or a couple of these – your friend on TikTok may have possibly already given up on using Instagram. As a result, the more platforms you’re promoting your act on, the better.

Cheers,

Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch

Music lover, creator & collector

chairman@spinneymedia.com

Chairman currently enjoys freaking out & creating panic with his spastic rock band Nasalrod, which is based in Portland, Oregon. He created this blog to share his serious love of music, the arts, and physical media.