Music Publicity 101: Your Next Release

In Part 1, Nancy Lu describes her career transition from healthcare and technology to music PR, emphasizing the role of internships and the importance of resonating with the artists she represents. She highlights the significance of personal connection in understanding an artist’s story and effectively conveying it through PR. Nancy also discusses the evolution of her career, from her intern work at Girlie Action to founding her PR firm, Fancy PR.

Marc Brown: Hello Nancy, welcome to #HowWeListen Live: In Conversation. How are things? 

Nancy Lu: I’m doing well, thanks. 

Marc: Where are you joining us from? 

Nancy: I’m in New York.

Marc: Of Course… Now to get things going, can you tell me a bit about how you ended up doing what you’re doing? What’s the background story?

Nancy: I studied marketing as an undergrad and after that I went into healthcare consulting, so very different from anything involved in music. After that, I worked in a tech startup and then for a nonprofit before transitioning into music. I transitioned into music the same way a lot of kids these days are doing it, which is getting an internship, learning the ropes and then moving on from there. I established Fancy PR about 10 years ago and I primarily work with rising artists across all genres. I would say it’s definitely important to me to work with people who I would choose to listen to on my own, outside of this job. I think that having a personal connection to the artist or band that you’re working with is important, as far as being able to understand their story and what they’re trying to get across with their project. 

Marc: That’s a really interesting path! After working in multiple fields, how did you decide that music was what you wanted to get into? In my experience, people can often be laser-focused on getting into the music industry, so it’s impressive that you’ve done a couple of other things. What was the mindset that brought you to that transition point?

Nancy: Coming from an immigrant background there wasn’t a lot of support for pursuing a career in the arts, because that is seen as not at all financially stable, or maybe that there’s not as much room for growth as there might be in other industries. I have a lot of respect and admiration for young people who are very, very sure about what they want to do with their careers. I was struggling with the idea that I wanted to go into music, but my upbringing was telling me that it wasn’t the smartest thing to pursue. I tried to go down a more typical path before realizing that the other stuff was making me unhappy, so I needed to give my dreams a shot. 

Marc: Now that you’ve been doing it for a while, and looking back, do you feel that that pressure came from your family and your upbringing or do you think that it’s what you thought was expected of you? Did that social and familial pressure come from your family and your upbringing, or you? 

Nancy: I often conflate the two because family pressure and what society expects from you can feel like the same thing. I also think there is an unspoken pressure from your peers around you and you can feel like you’re behind when you see what they’re doing. A lot of my peers from undergrad went into things like banking and consulting. Had I gone straight into music I would have been the only one, so I felt that I should go into something else. 

Marc: It can also be intimidating when you don’t have an example of a career path to look to or to follow. So tell us about that big transition?

Nancy: When I was living in DC and still working at the nonprofit, I was very involved in going to shows and the music community. So I built a lot of really great connections in DC  including some of the guys that run music festivals in that city. At the same time, I was writing about music on the side, not as a means of getting into music but more for fun. Ultimately I think I ended up preparing myself somewhat unintentionally for my move. It’s important to mention that there are a lot of ways to get involved in the music industry that are not full-time jobs. And yes,  it was harder for me to get into the industry initially, because I didn’t have a network to plug into since no one I knew worked in and around music. What I appreciate so much now is that companies like Wasserman are starting some of these incubator programs specifically targeted to underserved communities and people of colour who might not necessarily have industry connections or have the financial means to take on a low or non-paying internship. It helps to create more diversity in the industry, which I think is great.  

Marc: It can be so intimidating when figuring out how to get into the music industry. I guess maybe the first step can be realizing that it is accessible to everyone. So when you first started moving towards music, you were living in DC, and now you’re in New York. How did that happen? 

Nancy: I decided I wanted to move to New York. Once I moved there I kind of leaned on the connections that I had made in DC and asked around if anyone was hiring. From there, I was able to do a music PR internship for a summer. That was a great experience because it showed me what’s expected and required to do the job – it set me up well for what I’m doing now. I worked with Girlie Action.

Marc: How did you end up starting your own company? 

Nancy: After my internship, I ended up working at a management agency called Vitalic Noise where I was responsible for press for their management clients. At the time, they were also launching a PR-only arm of the business, taking clients that only had press needs. So I ended up working there for about two years before going out on my own. I decided to start Fancy PR so that would have more autonomy and to be able to decide who I wanted to work with, instead of vice versa. It has been a huge added benefit to me, like I said,  if you like and resonate with an artist(client) you usually do a much better job. 

Marc: I used to do radio promotion when I lived in the UK and that story seems to be the natural path to advancement. People develop in their jobs, they reach a certain point and then they go out on their own. So after you left, how long did it take before you felt that it could be a sustainable business? 

Nancy: At about 6 months I  started to have more confidence in it all. I did come into it with a handful of clients that I had worked with at the management company. The music industry is also very “ word of mouth”. I’m a firm believer that good work gets you more good work. So if you do a great job and exceed expectations, it’ll either get noticed by other people or the client themselves will refer you to others. I think that was how I was able to grow the company and stay in business.

Marc: The role of PR has probably changed a lot in the last 15 years. Can you explain how you view the role of PR today? 

Nancy: So I think PR today is more about being a content coordinator or content facilitator because content is so fragmented across so many different mediums today. I think for a publicist, it’s very much about creating opportunities for content. So that could include red carpet appearances, traditional media, podcasts – anything. There’s so much these days that publicists touch. What you’re responsible for also depends on who the client is and what they want. Our job is really to generate awareness for what our clients are doing. For us to create that greater awareness we need to be plugged in across all of these different platforms and mediums.

Marc: When I hear this description, the one question I feel I need to ask is does everybody expect the same thing from you?

Nancy: So it is very dependent on the client and how they’ve structured their team. Before starting any publicity campaign, it’s really important to define the scope of work so that we both, me and the client, are on the same page as far as what’s expected.

Marc: I’m assuming your client base ranges from big clients who are much more visible, to newer artists. You said that you work with artists that are right for you…

Nancy: Totally. When defining the scope of work and talking about client expectations, it’s really important to be very transparent. So for smaller artists especially, it would have to be a longer campaign, like nine months or a year because there’s so much that can happen in that time. A great example of that is somebody like Tommy Richmond who has the song Million Dollar Baby which has blown up on TikTok. A year ago no one knew who he was but today he is primed for a late-night appearance and other broadcast opportunities. That goes back to my previous point of being a content facilitator, and not a content creator. The job of the publicist is to amplify what’s already going on for the artist, so with Tommy Richmon, that means taking advantage and making the most of the moment that’s been created with the veracity of a single.

Marc: So, to be even more specific, could you give me a rough step-by-step look at what your job is exactly? Let’s say you’re starting out, with a new client, or you have a previous client come back, how does it work? 

Nancy: Those two situations are very different. As far as onboarding a new client, we will usually we’ll go through an intro conversation and I’ll send a document outlining what my strategy would be, who I’d be targeting and the budget. Then there might be a follow-up conversation and finally, a conversation with the artist (and their team) to make sure that they feel comfortable and that I’m somebody that understands what their goals are. If they decide to move forward, we go to the asset-gathering stage. Those take time to create so I don’t necessarily expect people to have all of them right away, but I like to have as many as possible. The assets also make it easier to get a clear picture of the entire campaign vision. What’s also important to the strategy is whether it’s an EP or an LP campaign and what the goals are. From the very start, we also need to consider who you’ll be reaching out to later on because there are often very long lead times. For example with print, you’re going to want to do that months in advance. 

Marc: So I’m assuming this is what either artists or labels or managers are paying for – to be able to plug into this sort of knowledge, how to do things and how all these people/contacts work? Or do you get paid based on results?

Nancy: For the most part, publicists work on a retainer. Sometimes we have different tiers of pricing depending on the work required, like if the artist wants podcasts, TV or something else. I prefer to work on a retainer fee so it’s consistent.

Marc: That sounds like it could be stressful! Especially in the US where there are so many opportunities. Do you experience artist managers and labels being more meticulous nowadays than when you used to work for a bigger company? Or do you think it’s the same as it’s always been?

Nancy: I haven’t been on the other(artist/management) side to know how much time they’re spending on looking at different proposals, so that’s hard for me to say. The one thing I have noticed is that there is a greater emphasis on events these days. You want to get your artist invited to events like the Billboard Awards, Women in Music Awards, and things like that. They are great photo opportunities and they offer up the opportunity for artists to meet other people in the space and potentially tap into their fanbase too, say if that other (more popular) artist shares the photos. 

Marc: Wow. I wasn’t expecting any of this, so my view of PR is quite dated clearly. Some people say that there are fewer opportunities today, but from what I’m hearing you say that’s not necessarily the case, it’s just shifted. Would you say the overall goal has stayed the same, but how you achieve it is different? 

Nancy: I would say the goal is the same and the ways that we are trying to achieve it are more complicated. 

Marc: Does that mean more strategic? Is there any way to simplify it?

Nancy: That’s a great question – I’m not sure anyone has the answer. I think everybody will have their ideas of what that might be, but I think it’s always been a building block sort of thing. You set a solid foundation of awareness, and then hope that one song pops off. Once that happens then you can lean in and try to get more higher-tier opportunities. That might also lead to sync opportunities, and then the artist might be ready for a headlining tour and brand collaborations. You have to keep working at it and pay attention to where the metrics are. I do wish that publicists would pay more attention to the numbers. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of data that’s driving publicity unless we are better integrated with the rest of the team. I want them to share insights on which territories are selling the most tickets, where the streaming numbers are, who is buying merch etc. It could also be a qualitative analysis, say- are we seeing any particular trends on social media, what the comments are like etc? That is the information that can help you strategize what to do next when it comes to PR. 

Marc: More complicated than I thought. Makes sense, you’re only as good as the base information you are getting. We talked about gathering assets, but it sounds like gathering data plays a really big role too. 

Nancy: A lot of times, especially when people hire independent publicists, we are treated like a contractor, only informed on a need-to-know basis. I think that’s a disservice to everyone involved. We need to know the teams’ overarching goals, so having that information can make a huge difference in what a publicist chooses to focus on. 

Continue reading: head to part two here.