Music Publicity 101: Your Next Release

In part 2, Nancy Lu explains that contracting a publicist usually involves a flat retainer rate rather than payment based on results. She emphasizes the importance of reports in public relations; these documents demonstrate the publicist’s efforts and adherence to the artist’s goals, serving both as accountability and progress checks. Nancy also highlights the delicate balance of achieving tangible outcomes, the necessity of clear communication of both successes and failures and the potential need to adjust strategies such as release timings to optimize campaign effectiveness.

This is part two of the conversation transcript. Miss part one? Click here to go back.

Marc Brown: When I talk to artists they often don’t seem to realize how much responsibility for success lies on their and their manager’s shoulders. Talk to me about the “report”?

Nancy Lu: This kind of goes back to what we were saying about how when you contract a publicist you’re not necessarily paying them for results, a lot of time it’s just a flat rate, on retainer. It’s really important that whenever you bring someone on, your team does diligent work, but also that results are produced. For publicists, it’s basically that you’re contracted for as long as you can produce results. It’s a little bit of an unspoken rule, but that’s really how it works. “Reports” are a way for people to show, internally, that you’ve done the work and reached out to people. The report is an opportunity to show the artist and the rest of their team that you’ve listened to them and what their goals are and acted on all of them. At the end of the day, if you’re showing the report and there’s nothing positive in it they’re sort of looking at the fact that you did the work but don’t have anything tangible to show for it. That’s not a great situation to be in as a publicist. It is important to be able to communicate both positive and negative views and let people know what is and is not working, they need to know. That is also when we can have a bigger conversation and consider switching things up like releasing a single early or something like that. 

Marc: There are so many nuances when it comes to PR. Giving and getting feedback means there’s more you can learn when working together, which is why the report is so important. When you reach out to people on behalf of an artist, do you expect them to say yes right away, or do you go back to them 6 months after initial contact?

Nancy: It depends on what it is that you’re pitching. For example, if you’re pitching news, you could follow up much sooner since it’s more timebound. Also if you’re pitching something like a full album, you have to do that months in advance so following up too soon after, asking if they’ve listened to it, doesn’t make sense. It is important to think about what it is you have asked for and when you want them to run the story, then base that on when you’re going to follow up. I always like to say “freedom within framework”, because there is always a framework, of course, but nothing is ever set in stone. As you said, there are so many nuances, like is what you’re pitching a fit for the writer or publication? Some stories will only take 30 minutes to put together and others might take a month of research and tapping into different people and stakeholders. Never be afraid to reach out to somebody, especially if you feel like a particular journalist will love your project. Worst case is that they don’t respond but you should always go ahead and reach out. 

Marc: When I have talked to newer artists, people are generally surprised when I tell them to email or DM people. Do you think that works – the cold reach out?

Nancy: It doesn’t hurt to cold reach out to people. I would always try to get them on the medium that you think they use the most. For most people, that’s usually email and I generally like to contact people using what’s going to look more professional, versus more casual like Instagram or Twitter. I’m not saying that you can’t do it like that, but it should be two sentences max – not an email pitch that you copy and paste into social media. Also be cognizant of holidays, time differences and things like that. 

Marc: When you were talking about a new project I was thinking about this tech guy who wrote a book called “The Cold Start”. That is a really good term to describe a new artist who might not have a lot going on yet. I’m assuming you get a lot of queries from new artists who have very minimal streams and want to become huge. Can you talk about that journey from when someone’s just starting out, to when they’re ready to work with someone like you, and what steps they can take to propel themselves forward?  

Nancy: For new artists, the number one thing to acknowledge is that to be successful, the work just doesn’t stop when you finish the music – it’s a constant job. That means planning out what you’re going to post on social media, trying to play shows, and reaching out to managers or booking agents. One thing about agents and managers, they want to work with you when you have a bit of a buzz around you, so the reality is that you won’t be able to get a booking agent when you don’t need one. They’re not going to magically generate stuff that you couldn’t get on your own, because it’s more like outsourcing when you don’t have the time or the expertise to take it to the next level. So especially in the beginning, you can actually do all of those different jobs and pull those pieces together. 

Marc: I would also argue that another good reason to do these things is so that when things start to build they’re coming to you down the line with knowledge of what you need to be successful at your job. Is that not correct? 

Nancy: Yeah, exactly. You want to be somebody who is doing whatever you can to generate awareness about yourself and build a little fan base. Then there’s a bit more to the story than just “I put out a record”. The media landscape is always changing. A couple of years ago, we used to say that it was all about the music but that doesn’t really fly anymore. These days, fans want to feel connected to the artists they’re listening to. The only way you can accomplish that is by sharing things about yourself on different social media channels. 

Marc: You need to build context around who you are. Before you could let the music do the talking, which is romantic, but now you need to give context to make the listener feel like they’re special. Is the goal to stand out from the crowd? 

Nancy: You want to stand out but that doesn’t necessarily mean being a total clown, unless that is your vibe. People want human beings to connect, the artist must be a true authentic person. Gen Z are especially way more cognizant about things that are important to them, whether it be the environment, sustainability, all of that – they have a greater care for the world. So if there is an issue that is important to you, how can you incorporate it into your project? I’m not saying to invent things, but again if there is something that makes you who you are, really let it show. 

Marc: From my experience when you talk to artists you have to repeat yourself 15 times that it’s all about timelines. Let’s talk about that since it’s so foundational. 

Nancy: So if I was an artist and I just finished a great record, I would want to put it out immediately. But I think it benefits artists to spend time to plan the rollout. After that plan is put together, if it includes a publicist, you need to get the right publicist on board because they’ll be with you throughout the whole rollout. So that kind of addresses the point of timelines, you can’t approach publicists too late. I’ve had situations where people have approached me a week before or after something has come out, and in both of those situations I’d pass because it isn’t set up for success. 

Marc: Right, because where are the opportunities, right? 

Nancy: Yeah you’ve essentially missed all of the opportunities for news pieces. There is also being too early, that’s less about a specific release and more about an artist’s lifestyle. So if you’re reaching out to a publicist and you have no music out, or music that has less than 1,000 streams – your money is better spent elsewhere. If you haven’t built up enough of a following or enough of a story for journalists to be interested, you probably want to put the money into digital marketing or production or something like that. 

Marc: I’ve heard of a PR person who might accept a contract too late or too early, but I guess what you’re saying is that if you wanted to do that, you need to understand what the expectations are based on the tools that the PR person is given…

Nancy: Yeah, based on the tools but also where the artist is.  There are a lot of situations where an artist hires someone to do publicity but isn’t happy with the results. Remember there are no guarantees in PR, we are pitching someone or something so it is a bit out of our hands after that. If it is a disappointing experience, hopefully, you can take what you learned from that rollout and apply it to the next one and make the necessary changes. 

Marc: I’m sure you’re very busy with inbound stuff, but I assume loads of people working in PR would also reach out to people that they like.

Nancy: Most publicists primarily work on inbound requests and outbound is a bit rarer. I’ve only ever done it a little bit because I don’t like to step on anyone’s toes. I probably wouldn’t reach out unless they don’t have a publicity contact anywhere. But if they do have an existing publicist, I wouldn’t try to get into that situation.  

Marc: You mentioned Gen Z earlier and the changing landscape,  would you agree that it’s more complicated now than ever to do what you do?

Nancy: Yes, it is complicated. Every time there’s a shift in the industry, it is usually because of people experimenting and integrating new tools out there, with the result being that an artist or single blows up. Once that happens, everybody starts looking at that example and trying to replicate it until it becomes the new normal. We’re always shifting and moving.

Marc: This sets the perfect stage for my last question, AI and how that will come into play. 

Nancy: I think AI will only help to improve workflow and to shorten process time. So whether that be writing a press release more quickly or looking for some more concise language, it’s useful. I don’t think it’ll replace publicists and I truly don’t think that AI is as scary as a lot of people have made it out to be. I think it’s a great tool to make us better and faster at our jobs. 

Marc: People don’t realize just how creative publicists are. From going through the proposals, talking to artists and managers, getting their goals and creating a plan – it’s a lot! I think that the insights and personalized plans are irreplaceable, so for me, it’s obvious AI can’t take over this space because the human creativity behind what goes on is often discounted. On that note, Nancy, thank you so much for chatting, it was super interesting! I hope I get to talk to you soon. 

Nancy: Thank you, Marc.