Some blog outreaches work incredibly well, some don’t. Accepting various forms of result is part of getting the music out there, and it opens a number of opportunities if played right. Connecting to external content creators and building relationships is key when building strong release strategies. Even apart from the outcome of a given blog outreach, there are various take-aways that you can obtain from conducting these PR activities.
Reflecting on your product
By having to describe your music, a track or release to an external person, you have to make it very clear for yourself how you want to be perceived. This includes a thorough investigation on similar artists and styles that are out there.
By reflecting on your work you become more and more aware of what you do, and have the opportunity of adjusting certain elements.
It’s also a great chance to get feedback from friends and peers. They can help you getting that one-sheet just right. Be real about what the status quo is and where you want to head with it.
Polishing the pitch
Until you’re at the point where your music is completely self-explanatory, you’ll have to engage in an ongoing pitch. Especially DIY musicians without the backup and resources of a communications team have to create their own musical pitch.
This process can be incredibly revealing, cornering important truths and insights on your project and channeling them within a communicative thrust.
With every outreach you’ll re-evaluate things that worked well and integrate them into your habit of writing / talking about your art.
Engaging in a solid blog outreach is a great way of working your way to a compelling, on-point pitch.
Relationship business
No matter how well or bad a blog-outreach goes – every time you engage with a person excited about music and in a position to generate some form of publicity, you’re building a relationship.
Even if you are turned down, these relationships will have the potential of lasting beyond a single measure. You will most likely gain respect by staying at it, delivering updates on new tracks and keeping the communication going.
Keep this in mind, especially when you receive some form of rejection notice. You will carry these relationships into every aspect of your music business agenda, and they will have enable you to keep a firm level of artistic emancipation, which is incredibly important when dealing with outside players like labels or publicists.
Getting to know the grind
Even though things should run smoothly in various aspects of your release-preparation, engaging in extensive blog-outreaches can teach you a whole lot about the grindwork of music PR.
Basically you work as your own publicist, reporting to yourself and engaging in the same form of initiative as hired pro’s: You work with established or new contacts, navigate through various demands and expectations, have to deal with the politics of music PR.
This not only helps you develop a stern sense of what it takes to push a message out there, it also let’s you develop a sensibility for assessing external performances.
You will know whether someone you might want to work with shares the same drive and approach as you have, and make life a lot easier (or harder, depending on the match) for every prospective publicist.
Tweaking your aesthetic compass
One of the most important take-aways of this process is probably the aesthetic compass you develop in the course of your blog research.
You will be confronted with a handful of unknown artists, and get a feeling for text-and visual styles that are preferred and fashionable.
This doesn’t mean you have to adapt these patterns. Just being aware of them really sets you apart from many musicians without a holistic feeling for the look and feel of contemporary music communication.
Hype Machine & SubmitHub – 2 incredible blog tools that we use and love – are part of the ForTunes feed. So as soon as you start pitching your music, we’ll let you know when things start buzzing.
1 one already already liked this, but everybody needs a friend, so give us a <3