Music PR 101: 9 Steps to Managing Your Own Publicity + How to Find a Music PR Firm

Most musicians don’t get into the industry with a passion for business or public relations, but generating media interest in your music is a critical part of success. That’s why so many musicians hire a PR firm: they can give you an “in” with music media figures and help navigate the increasingly complex media landscape. 

But not everyone can afford to hire a PR firm, especially early in their careers. The good news: in this rapidly evolving music landscape, you don’t necessarily need one. Record labels, PR firms and music media used to be the gatekeepers of the industry: to get in front of an audience, you had to go through them first. Thankfully, the explosion of streaming has changed that. It’s easier and more accessible than ever for musicians to build an audience without PR investments. And besides, there are many PR tasks that you can handle yourself. 

Today, you don’t always need a dedicated PR-rep on a payroll. That’s why we’ve put together this article, a do-it-yourself music PR guide. And, if you feel like you’re ready to get a PR agency, we’ll also share a few tips on what to look for in the PR firm.

What is music PR?

Music PR, or public relations, is a form of promotion for the artist’s music, tours, or artist brand in general, that generates media (and ultimately public) attention. A music PR firm works to get exposure for a band’s music through interviews, album reviews, news relays, press releases, tour announcements, radio airplay, and everything in between.

PR is often seen as a “free advertising”, since you don’t have to actually pay the media — except that it’s never really free. You still have to dedicate a lot of time and resources to get the media outlets talking.

How to be your own music PR agent

PR agents can provide critical industry access and connections, but there are many music marketing duties that you can handle yourself if you’re an independent artist or nota ready for an agent. Here are the most critical steps for building publicity around your music.

1. Get your music on many channels

The goal of any PR campaign is to generate public interest in your music, and the first step to doing that is making sure that your music is on as many channels as possible. Writers often have their own format and platforms that they prefer to discover and explore new artists, so a presence on all the different platforms ensures that your music can reach any writer. 

2. Get a professional EPK

Your music PR strategy should build a narrative around you or your band and communicate it to the media. However, how do you make sure that it’s you who control that narrative (for the most part, at least)? Build an electronic press kit, including your photos, biography, featured music, social media links and more. That way, you can be sure that when the writers need any details on your band — you are the source. 

From the PR perspective, your biography is the most important part of your EPK, so make sure it holds up to the highest standard. Having a professional writer to do your bio is not a bad idea — but if you’re going full DIY, make sure to get a second (and third) opinion on your biography. 

3. Manage/create a professional email account

No one is going to email you if your email is rainbowkittensuprise@gmail.com (unless you are literally the band Rainbow Kitten Surprise). Set up a simple and boring email account, something like pr@macdemarco.com. 

4. Keep social media active

Just getting your music on all the different channels and platforms is not enough. You also need to build a presence on the major social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and X. These platforms provide an opportunity to post your music, interact directly with fans, and build your brand.

5. Get professional album covers done

How do reviewers and listeners identify and remember music? With album covers! And not just for albums: having an album cover for EPs, Singles, and mixtapes makes it easy for people to differentiate your music (and lets you develop a unique style and aesthetic as well). 

6. Build up your PR database 

Your database of media contacts is your biggest resource. Or perhaps, it’s your second biggest resource — the first the relationships and the reputation you have with people in that database. Build up your network and enrich it with data: ideally, you should be able to know everything you need about a media contact just by looking at your database — including media type, covered genres, your previous contacts and more.  

7. Put the time in

Let’s get real. If you’re just starting out with your PR, music journalists and media you’ll be contacting won’t have the slightest idea as for who you are 99% of the time. PR is all about building up your reputation, and starting out from ground zero is hard. The chances are that you will be one of the thousands upon thousands of budding music publicists in the journalist’s inbox (or DMs, if that’s your style — but be careful, some of the journalists understandably want to separate their work and their personal life). 

In that competitive landscape, slapping together a Mailchimp template and sending it out to your PR-database is not going to cut it. Even if your music kicks people socks off, it’s bound to get lost in an ocean that is music journalist’s inbox 90% of the time — unless your message stands out from the crowd. 

The best way to grab people’s attention is to dedicate yourself and customize your outreach. At the first stages of building your name in the PR world, your success is a function of the time you put into it — so don’t half-ass it. Take the time to research the authors previous work, and write up personalized emails, and follow up if you get the opportunity. There’s a much better chance that the journalist will give your music a chance if they feel that personal touch vs. an automated template. 

8. Set up your priorities

There are a million different blogs, reviewers, news sources, and social media influencers out there. However, broad and general targeting is not always the best way to go. It might be much more effective to reach out only to relevant people — or even better, set up a list of 10 high-priority media and focus your attention on those. 

If you manage to get a couple of key influencers across the scene to talk about you, it will be much easier to approach the rest. Besides, maybe it won’t even be necessary — a few well-placed articles can send out waves across the music media and get you a lot of organic press. 

9. Use data to guide your strategy 

The world of PR can be hard to navigate. The opportunities are plentiful, but how do you single out the ones with the most potential? Use data analytics as a foundation to guide your decisions and make sure that you focus your work where it will have the most impact. #ShamelessPlug: Here’s where Soundcharts comes in. 

Soundcharts is a data analytics platform, aggregating artist data across the music industry and turning it into tailored insights for music professionals across all the verticals of the music business.

Here’s a couple of examples of how Soundcharts can help you optimize your PR initiatives: 

• Our clients have been using Soundcharts airplay monitoring to track the success of their radio promotion campaigns and grow their networks, as they noticed the new stations playing their music
• Soundcharts Online Mentions tracking has become a go-to tool for music PR professionals looking to expand their operation and assess the impact of their PR campaigns
• Geo-segmented Spotify and YouTube consumption data can highlight your most active/ fastest-growing regional markets to guide your PR-strategy, focusing your work where it will have the most impact

What to look for in a music PR firm

As you can see, becoming your own PR-agent (and doing it successfully) is no small fit. A good PR takes a lot of work — and at some point of an artist's career the time will come to step up your game and get in bed with a PR-agency (unless you want public relation to become your full time job). However, hiring a PR firm is very costly, so if you go for it, you should choose your partner carefully. Here are some of the criteria you should look for:

1. Proven success

Don’t just take a PR firm’s word for it when they tell you they can boost your career. Do they have a proven track record of gaining attention and media for their artists on the music scene? Choose a PR firm that can provide measurable examples: increased sales, more social media followers, and more appearances in prominent media.  

2. Efficient timelines

PR campaigns can take a long time: the process of promoting an album, for instance, begins months before the album’s release. Your PR firm should have a good handle on how long the process will take and the timeline involved, along with specific goals and metrics along the way. 

3. Connections

One of the biggest points of value a music PR company can provide is connections to people in prominent music media: reviewers, bloggers, radio stations, news sites, magazines, and more. These writers and influencers depend partially on PR firms to find new music for their own audiences, so having a PR firm with lots of “ins” who can get you on publicist playlists will make your music promotion much more effective. 

4. Support and belief

First and foremost, your PR firm should believe in you and your music. That means understanding the brand, audience, and style that you or your band are trying to cultivate, and supporting your decisions regardless of immediate financial gain. 

Are you ready to hire a music PR firm?

If you just kickstarted your career and haven’t released a song yet, then a PR firm won’t be able to help you much. Here are some indicators it’s the right time. 

You’re going on (a multi-region) tour

Touring requires some of the most intensive PR in the industry: you need to drum up enough attention across different venues to sell tickets and turn your tour profitable. You won’t be alone there — local promoters will pull their weight too. However, the PR firms with extensive networks can help a lot when it comes to the overarching tour promotion, generating interest for your shows through national media and airplay.  

You have 100,000+ listeners throughout your area

A music PR firm can help take you or your band from regional-level success to national-level success. If you’ve reached hundreds of thousands of listeners and have a significant fan base in your region, then, backed with this data, a PR firm can bring you to the attention of national media and help you get coveted festival spots. An interest from the music industry is often a system that feeds itself — and the PR-firm’s connections might just be the thing to get it running and propel your music into the next league. 

Conclusion 

A PR firm can open certain industry doors, help get your music career off the ground or help launch the artist from regional to national level. On the other hand, hiring a PR firm is expensive, so not everyone will have this opportunity. Not to worry: there are many PR tasks that you can do yourself, especially if you have data to shape your strategy and measure success.