The press and publicity panel on Day 1 of SXSW was pretty informative. It was mostly a Q&A format, so I’ve included relevant audience questions. It was chaired by:
Nick Baily - Dir of Pub. ShoreFire Media
Kandiia Crazyhorse - Rock Critic, Blogger for Bluegum.
Q: What makes a good press photo?
BA: “the best thing you can do is visualize yourself on the cover of a magazine that you really admire. And then look at your press photo and honestly say how you would feel if you saw that on there”
Q: At what point is is relevant to move from DIY PR to hiring someone else to do it?
BA: “One answer would be when you can afford it”
CH: “I’d say later than you think - Many folks are eager to hand off as much as possible to a manager/publicist, but most critics etc. would rather speak to the principles involved. I suppose when a PR Agency can get things for you that you can’t get for yourself”
BA: “If you’ve got a big ticket PR company shopping you and you haven’t really DONE anything, that can really reflect badly on you as an artist - it’ll look like you’re throwing money at your career first - and that’s not always a good thing.”
Q: How should one move from regional PR to national?
BA: “If you’ve run a successful regional PR campaign, I wouldn’t change much. Your really doing things right at that point. “
CH: “You can always look to get placement in the regional section of a national magazine (like Billboard’s Regional charts)
Q: How do you feel about digital only releases?
BA: “I’m a bit biased, but I think a physical release with a national distributor portrays a certain credibility - and I’m more likely to take notice because of that and listen more closely”
CH: “That said, we’ll listen to anything once. If it’s a good song, we’ll cover it.”
