LET’S TALK ABOUT PUBLICISTS

This is a really long post and I apologize in advance. I’ve tried to edit it down and this is as short as I can make it without sacrificing any of the points I’m trying to drive home. Sorry.

I got home last night around 11:30 pm, and to my surprise and delight, Chimaira’s Mark Hunter was STILL GOING on his tweeting tear (new topics of discussion include the very depressing realities of touring in a van versus paying for a bus, and how a band’s road crew can sometimes make more money than the band itself does), continuing to answer HUNDREDS of fans’ questions on all facets of the music business, and pulling yet even more industry insiders, like DevilDriver’s Dez Fafara, into the mix. In fact, Hunter was still going as of about 3 a.m. EST this morning, hours after I’d finally hit the sack, and literally just as I started typing this, I noticed that he is now awake and at it again. And I would like to re-emphasize the amazingness of this conversation. Not only should you be following Mark on Twitter, but you should also read this really, really incredible interview that Metal Insider published earlier today on the whole topic — not only is it another nice summation of much of what Hunter has been discussing, but it goes into even greater depth on many of these topics.

ANYWAY, my contribution to this ongoing discussion was to express surprise that no one had brought up the topic of publicists yet; Mark promptly did address the topic (and discusses it a little more in the aforementioned Metal Insider interview), and I’m going to publish his thoughts after the jump. But I also want to take some time and express my own thoughts on the important role publicists play in this industry. ‘Cause, as I said on Twitter last night, your band does not need to be signed to have a publicist, and, yes, if you can afford one, a good PR rep is totally worth having.

So, first of all, here’s what Hunter had to say about publicists over the course of several tweets, which I have combined into one statement for the sake of convenience:

“publicists – they get you interviews, in magazines, tv appearances, etc.. they make you seem larger than life. maria ferrero [from Adrenaline PR] is a legend. cons of a publicist – sometimes their ability to filter what’s credible press is questionable haha. example. high school newspaper. but all in all they do great work, and want you to be seen and heard everywhere. any band can hire one. so even if you have to do an interview with a high school newspaper who’s first question will most certainly be ‘so, how’s the tour going’ it’s all part of the magic and it’s necessary!”

Dez Fafara went one step further, and even though I’m not sure about the price he quotes (different publicists charge different rates, obviously, and you can definitely hire a good one for less than the amount he specifies… more on that in a minute), I totally agree with the gist of his message:

“save money hire press person that’s how ! In your basement with a great press person about 3500 a month you can get out get noticed”

Now THERE’S the rub. Yesterday Hunter advised young, unsigned bands to “pay for your own recording then give it away for free. if it’s good enough, it will catch on.” Of course, the real issue is, HOW will it catch on? So you and your band have written a bunch of really awesome songs, and made a high-quality-sounding recording — how do you spread the word?

Of course, at the basic level, there’s just good old fashioned DIY canvassing of the community. Stand outside a show and hand out fliers, stickers, CDs, download cards, whatever. And you can send nice query letters and download links to magazines and blogs like this one, of course. (And one day I might do an entire post JUST about query letters. Honestly, a well-written e-mail will make all the difference in the world… getting something rude and/or illiterate will not make a journalist or blogger any more anxious to check out your band. Ditto writing something the length of a novella.)

But, really, having a good publicist can make a COLOSSAL difference. And even if you’re self-funding your album’s recording, you should put some money aside for promotional services. I know that’s easier said than done; I know it’s tempting to take what little money you have and throw it all into the recording of your album. But if you hire the right publicist, in the long run, you will be incredibly happy that you scrapped together that extra bit of funding.

Think about this seriously for a second. Here at MetalSucks, we literally get HUNDREDS of e-mails about checking out bands every day, and I know for a fact that it’s no different for websites and magazines (to say nothing of label peeps, producers, etc.). It isn’t feasible that we’re going to be able to listen to everything everyone sends us, and it definitely isn’t feasible that we’re going to be able to listen to everything right away. We have to prioritize. Sometimes, that prioritizing is a no-brainer; if I get a promo copy of the new album by a band I already know and really love, for example, that album is going straight to the top of my “Shit I Need to Listen To” pile. A lot of the time, though, that prioritizing is really semi-random. And that’s when having a good publicist can really help your band.

A good publicist already has tons of media connections that you do not; they work with the blogs and magazines every day, and they know who is most likely to cover unsigned bands, and who is most likely to cover an unsigned band that plays your particular style of metal, and ones that are really, really on top of their shit will even know which writers at each media outlet like specific subgenres and/or bands (e.g., “Vince loves this band, hates that band,” or “Axl loves this kind of metal, hates that kind of metal”). In other words: THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS. And they know how to pitch that audience.

So if I get an e-mail about an unsigned band I’ve never heard of from a publicist I work with on a daily basis and he or she is like “Hey, check these dudes out, they sound kinda like X and I know you love X!”, guess what? That album is getting much closer to the top of the pile than one submitted by some random kid. ‘Cause the unfortunate reality is, there’s only so many hours in the day, and writers have to use those hours wisely.

Speaking of using hours wisely, guess what else? You probably have a day job and, thus, only so many hours in the day you can devote to trying to spread the word about your band, right? Well, a publicist’s day job IS to spread the word about your band. So there’s that to consider.

And there’s no shortage of good independent publicists out there (that is, not publicists who work in-house at a label — don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great label publicists, too, but that topic obviously doesn’t apply to this particular conversation). They work for a range of prices, and some of them will happily adjust their prices based on your budget — and they should be upfront with you about what your money can buy. Yes OF COURSE a larger sum of cash will get you more than a smaller sum of cash, but you should be able to find someone who you can afford and still won’t screw you. You’re free to work out a deal — Fafara mentions paying $3,500 per month, but some publicists will happily negotiate a flat rate for X amount of time, which should be the first however many weeks/months your album is going to be out there in the world, perhaps starting a little bit before that since certain features take some time to set up.

One last note: You should not only be looking for a publicist that you can afford, but one who legitimately likes your band, because they will work that much harder if they believe in the product they’re pushing. I know that’s easier said than done; you’re going to people and offering them money, so in theory they have a very good incentive to lie to you and tell you they think you’re brilliant regardless of how they really feel. So treat looking for a publicist the same way you might treat looking for a producer, a manager, or a label. Who else have they worked with? Who else are they working with now? (And it should go without saying that independent publicists don’t work exclusively with unsigned bands. Plenty of signed bands hire outside help, too, just to get that extra push.) At the end of the day, you do need to go with your gut.

Okay, I think that’s everything I have to say about that… now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go return some publicits’ e-mails.

-AR