Back when press releases actually worked.

“How do I get blog coverage for my band?”

I get this question a lot from both artists and artist managers. I have traditionally avoided answering it. This is partly due to the fact that I really don’t cover individual artists very often here at Creative Deconstruction, so I’m probably not the best blogger to ask. But the question keeps coming.

Fortunately, there are plenty of articles on the subject. Don’t send generic mass emails. Don’t submit rap music to a heavy metal blog, or gutter punk to a site focused exclusively on the bluegrass community. Do not for any reason send a formal press release. All good advice.

Despite my reluctance to chime in, I have noticed an important omission from most of the articles on the subject of music blog coverage. Very few seem to highlight what I consider to be the most effective tool of them all – relationship.

Taking the time to develop a rapport with bloggers is the only way to ensure that they will open your emails.

And it does take time. Often lots of time. But keep in mind that you don’t have to reach out to every single blogger – bloggers often find their content on other blogs. Get your story up on one and it’s likely to spread to others.

That kind of viral multiplication still requires a compelling story if you want coverage on the high-traffic sites. Some blogs will cover just about anything to keep their stream of content flowing. Others are more careful about what they publish. Getting your story up on the latter will likely bring whatever you’re promoting much more attention than the former.

Building Relationships With Bloggers

I may not be an authority on music reviews or band interviews, but networking is a different story. Relationships are at the heart of everything I do. I spend a great deal of time and energy interacting with artists and other members of the music industry, as well as fellow bloggers and media people.

Relationships have been instrumental in getting readership at Creative Deconstruction to where it is today. Relationships introduced me to the good folks at Live Music Machine I’ve been working with lately. And relationships that I am cultivating now will soon play an important role in taking this blog to the next level.

1. Targeting Social Bloggers

Admittedly, not all bloggers put this kind of value on relationships. There is still a mentality among some – particularly among those who have been at it since the early days of blogging – that blogging somehow elevates you above the rest of the online community. This is of course ridiculous when just about every member of that online community is a blogger themselves.

It should be pretty obvious which bloggers get it and which do not. Take a peak at their Twitter profile page. How much of their Twitter activity is preceded by an ‘@’ symbol? If you find a blogger who is spending a lot of their time replying to other users they are probably a good networking candidate.

Another great sign can be found right in the blogger’s comments section. How often does the blogger reply directly to comments left on their posts? The more they interact with their readers the more likely they will be willing to interact with you.

2. Making the Connection

When you are trying to get onto a bloggers radar, the best place to start is with their content. Comment on their posts. If they respond to your post (and they should if you’ve targeted a social blogger) you’ve just made your first connection. Pretty simple.

Social media is a wonderful place to make connections. Twitter is a great access point because it is an open network (as opposed to permission-based networks such as Facebook or LinkedIN.) You can follow anybody. Retweet the blogger’s headlines. This adds value to them, and requires no relationship whatsoever to do. It may even lead them to check out your profile. Whenever I see a new user Retweeting one of my updates I’ll click through to their profile to see who it is that’s paying attention to what I’m saying. I’m looking for connections too, you know.

Does the blog have a Facebook page? Consider becoming a fan. Facebook pages are designed to facilitate communities. Make yourself a part of that community by engaging with their posts and jumping into discussions.

No matter how busy the blogger may be, and no matter how many other people are vying for their attention (usually fewer than you might think!) they will eventually notice you when they see that you are consistently engaged.

3. Writing a Compelling Story

We live in an attention society. Eyeballs are currency. 10,000 people viewing your Twitter profile will still translate into 0 fruitful connections if you have nothing compelling there for them to find. Is your bio filled out? Do you have any interesting information to purvey in your updates? Better yet, do you have a blog of your own to link to?

It’s not just about the platforms, though. It doesn’t matter how many words you dump into the bottomless information pit that is the world wide web if you don’t actually have anything interesting to say. (I’ve dumped 880 words so far in this post alone!)

Why should anybody write about you? Some artists may craft an EP so life-changing that the bloggers can’t help but review it, but everybody else needs to find a way to present their story effectively or it will be ignored. Is yours a rags to riches tale? Did you meet your bassist when he tried to steal your car? Do you contribute five percent of all your earnings to a particular charity?

Everyone has a story. The PR industry has traditionally been responsible for figuring out what that story is and how to tell it. But PR people can’t build relationships for you. You’d be better off spending the time to figure if out for yourself. Not only will you end up with a more authentic perspective, you will also be able to communicate it more effectively to those you network with. If you need help send me an email and I’d be happy get you started.

What have your experiences been? (Whether you are an artist, a blogger, or anywhere in between.) Have you found success with this or another approach?

Spend enough time online and you might begin to suspect that some media folks want you to think that the DIY approach will somehow be less work than then a traditional career in music. Strange, given that the term itself implies the opposite. ‘DIY’ does, after all, stand for ‘Do It Yourself.’ More rewarding? Less artistically limiting? More fun? Yes, yes, and probably. But less work? No.

Better does not always equal easier. Creating quality music and running a business are both challenging tasks on their own. Put them together and you’ve got your work cut out for you. The artist/fan relationship is the lynch-pin in today’s music marketplace and that relationship also takes a lot of time and energy to maintain, let alone grow. As much as you might want it to be ‘all about the music’ there are many other responsibilities vying for your attention. One artist who has learned this lesson – and who has experienced its sacrifices and rewards – is Imogen Heap.

An article called The New Music Business Model: Imogen Heap has been getting a lot of attention lately. Any article with a headline like ‘The New Music Business Model’ is likely to get a lot of attention these days, but this one is worth reading. The author, Colette Weintraub of Deep Dive Marketing, describes the sometimes novel ways Heap utilized technology and fan engagement in the making and marketing of her upcoming album Ellipse.

Imogen Heap wasn’t starting at square one when she began promoting Ellipse – she already had a committed fan base thanks to a host of films and TV shows featuring her music. But with Ellipse Heap has expanded her reach exponentially, and has truly done the bulk of the work herself. She refinanced her house to fund recording, she communicates constantly with her fans, even crowd-sourcing song titles and album artwork, etc.

She does SO much, in fact, that it’s hard to see how she has any time left to create music.

I didn’t really think of it that way until I read a recent Lefsetz post about his reaction to the Weintraub article. Here it is:

I uncovered the essay … delineating everything Imogen had done to sell her new album.

And my first reaction was, is it worth it?

Now the activities took two years to unfold.  But suddenly, you’re no longer a musician, but a personality.  And so much of what Imogen was doing was generating no revenue.  It was all leading up to a single sales event, the ultimate release of an album.  Huh?

He goes on:

Do you have to be a newfangled self-marketer to have success in today’s world?  If that’s what it takes, if you’ve got to do everything Imogen did, how many will say no?  What about practicing, gigging, getting good? … Just about everything Imogen has done here has nothing to do with music … There’s got to be a better way to reach fans.

It was refreshing to see a different perspective on the ‘New Music Business Model’ buzz, and it got me thinking about something I had seen from Heap herself a few days before the Lefsetz post. In responding to one of her followers on Twitter, Heap indicated that she was feeling the strain the process was putting on her. The DIY model that she had embraced was leaving precious little time for what she loves most: music. You can read her updates in the screenshots below.

Building a successful career in music on your own terms and with your own two hands is a difficult task, more akin to the life of an entrepreneur than to the iconic lifestyle of a rockstar. You’re the CEO, the content creator and PR coordinator all rolled into one overworked and (usually very) underpaid package. It’s not for everybody. Not everyone is going to enjoy that kind of lifestyle, and let’s not kid ourselves – not everyone is cut out for it.

I appreciate all of the excitement Imogen Heap’s story has been generating recently, and I hope that her new album launches to enormous returns. It’s great to have such a compelling example of DIY success. Those who do choose to go for it would be wise to study her experiences.

That, and after following Imogen for while now on Twitter and in the media I can’t help but root for her. I suppose that means that what she’s been doing for the past two years is working.

Photo by Jeremy Cowart.

The new real-time media culture has brought with it many incredible opportunities, but when you take a closer look it quickly reveals itself to be a double-edged sword.

Platforms like Twitter make it possible to stay frighteningly up-to-date on what’s going on in the world, whether it’s the death of a pop legend or a civil uprising across the world. The same goes for trends in music. If a band or a sound gets big, it’s likely to get big fast.

Faster is not always better, though. In fact, when a band comes out of nowhere and makes a big splash it can create unrealistic expectations, or worse, consumer fatigue. So, while generating buzz may be easier than ever, it may do more harm than good.

Too much of this business (and business in general) is built on promising consumers the world and giving them mediocrity. It’s much better to under-promise and over-deliver. How many times have you un-followed an artist on Twitter after the fifteenth time they tweet “Check out my awesome new record! It will blow your mind!” No, it won’t. How do I know this? If it was really going to blow my mind you wouldn’t have to warn me before hand. Somebody else – someone whose mind your record had already blown – would be telling me all about it instead.

Word of mouth used to take months or even years to spread. Now, I can send an update to hundreds or thousands of people all at once telling them how much I like the new Foreign Born record, or how much I’ve been listening to Phoenix. That update joins with a larger stream of conversations around those bands and the resulting buzz can be remarkable. That’s real-time, and it’s nearly impossible to manage effectively.

Yet, the faster word spreads the faster it risks losing its power. Even worse, what once was a lot of positive hype can quickly become a stigma. As Lefsetz recently put it:

“The mantra of the Internet age is slow and steady. [Its] the dreaded Pitchfork Syndrome. The site makes you, you sell product and tour to many, then the site says your next album is not as good and you’re OVER! Be careful what you wish for.”

So take your time. Build your fan base through honest, humble interactions and hard work. PR is good, and certainly don’t stop marketing your music. But remember that you’re an artist first. Buzz will come and go. The majority of your energy should be poured into crafting great music that gives your listeners something to tell their friends about. That is the only way to achieve lasting success.