{"id":115,"date":"2008-10-22T18:25:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-22T18:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=115"},"modified":"2008-10-22T18:25:36","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T18:25:36","slug":"why_me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2008\/10\/why_me\/","title":{"rendered":"Why me?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of artists have asked me if I think they need a publicist. I should probably always just say yes<\/a>,
\nbut I don’t. There are a lot of factors to consider – money, number of
\nperformances, and story potential being the big three. If the timing’s
\nnot right for the publicist, current media climate and artist, no good
\nwill come of the relationship. <\/p>\n

The money, of course, is
\ncomplicated: I get paid a monthly retainer whether I’m able to get
\npress for my artists or not, unlike a manager or booking agent, who
\nwould only get paid when the artist gets paid. Unfortunately, press is
\nnever a guarantee: a publicist and artist could think they have a
\nperfect storm concert, album release or story angle, and it could just
\nnot be right for the media outlet at that time. [Side note, if you ever
\nmeet with a potential publicist and he\/she promises to get you press,
\nstay away!] All the performing artists out there with unlimited
\nfinancial resources notwithstanding, extra cash is hard to come by, so
\nspend wisely. Do you have a website, for example? I personally think
\nthat is a more important first step in profile-building than hiring a
\npublicist; what good is all the press you’re going to get if there’s no
\nwhere to send new fans to learn more about you? The state of the
\nrecording industry being what it is, another option for funds is a
\nself-recorded, self-produced, digitally-distributed album or EP. Again,
\nif a publicist and\/or manager don’t have high quality audio or video
\nexamples of your work to pitch, how effective can they be? Good
\nphotography is another important first step, again, to provide a
\nstrong marketing tool for a manger or publicist in the future. <\/p>\n

Number of
\nperformances. Having a publicist will not directly result in more
\nconcert offers. Rather, having a publicist results in profile-building,
\nwhich will, more often than not, give a manager or booking agent
\nreasons to approach potential venues and orchestras, thus resulting
\nin more performances. Beware of cart-before-the-horse land: do you have
\nenough concerts, recordings, general happenings for a publicist to
\npromote? If not, both the publicist and the client will be totally
\nfrustrated by the relationship. Naturally, the million dollar question
\n(or like, $2000 question in classical music speak) becomes, will I get
\nmore concerts if someone raises my profile, or will my profile be
\nraised when I get more concerts? A dilemma, no doubt, but at the end of
\nthe day, if a publicist doesn’t have dates to promote, no one’s profile is getting raised.<\/p>\n

With classical critics droppin’ like flies and newspapers folding all
\naround us, artists rarely get press for just coming to town anymore. Or releasing
\nan album, for that matter. You may be an excellent musician, but if
\nthere’s not a story, there are major limitations to what a publicist
\ncan do for you. This does not mean you should ever be something or
\nsomeone that you’re not: journalists will be able to see through that,
\nand then no one wins. It does mean that you should think about whether
\nor not you need a personal publicist to promote your career above and beyond what the systems already in place can do. That is, if the story is that
\nyou’re playing with X orchestra on X day, can’t the in-house publicists
\nhandle that? <\/p>\n

I suppose, in the interest of paying my rent, I should say a few good
\nthings about publicists. The first and most important, I think, is
\nemploying someone to have a bird’s-eye view of your image and career.
\nYou’re playing at the 92 Street Y this month, but in two years you’ll
\nmake your Philharmonic debut; a publicist knows to hold back on major
\nNYC press for two years, rather than pursuing or accepting press
\nopportunities for a smaller performance. Additionally, management,
\nrecord labels, and presenters can all have vastly different agendas
\n(ironically enough) when it comes to an artist’s press presence. An
\nindependent publicist can weigh all these factors in selecting press
\nfor their artist. Of almost (if not) equal importance is an independent
\npublicist’s ability to provide a barrier between an artist and press.
\nIf I’m following up on a WNYC Soundcheck<\/i> opportunity for a
\nclient, for example, I
\ncan ask the necessary questions to get the ball rolling (or not), but if my clients e mailed WNYC and said, “Soooo,
\nare you interested in having us on the show or…?” it would be a
\ndisaster! Even if the media opportunity occurred, the interviewer would
\nhave such a bad taste about the artist in his or her mouth that the
\nresulting piece couldn’t possibly be good for anyone. <\/p>\n

On the most basic level, some artists get to the point in their careers of simply not having  enough time to deal with their own materials
\nand press pitches. I cooked dinner for the first time on Sunday night
\nin, oh, let’s say a month and a half; restaurants and my beloved
\nVinegar Hill down the street do it better and quicker than I.
\nArtists are busy, and it’s difficult to switch gears from practicing
\nand performing to…writing press releases. <\/p>\n

Having a publicist is a crazy thing, though, if you really think about
\nit (which I do, obviously). Would I let someone be my public face? Probably…not? Maybe?
\nDepends on the person, I suppose. There’s a lot of trust involved on
\nboth ends, but when you find the right fit at the right time, the
\nresults can be great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of artists have asked me if I think they need a publicist. I should probably always just say yes, but I don’t. There are a lot of factors to consider – money, number of performances, and story potential being the big three. If the timing’s not right for the publicist, current media climate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}