University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Public relations in the music business: how publicists continue to improve a changing industry

(USC Thesis Other)

Public relations in the music business: how publicists continue to improve a changing industry

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content PUBLIC RELATIONS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS: HOW PUBLICISTS CONTINUE TO IMPROVE A CHANGING INDUSTRY by Amanda Markell A Thesis Presented to the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS May 2013 Copyright 2013 Amanda Markell Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter I: Public Relations in the Present State of the Music Industry 6 Chapter II: A Publicist’s Relationship with a Record Company 16 Chapter III: Achieving Recognition 23 Chapter IV: Achieving Recognition Part II: Album Sales 28 Chapter V: Achieving Recognition Part III: Musicians as a Personal Brand 33 Chapter VI: Tour Publicity 36 Chapter VII: Public Relations for Tour Campaigns 39 Chapter VIII: When Tours Go Awry 43 Chapter IX: Brand Partnerships 46 Chapter X: Crisis Communication in Tour Publicity 48 Chapter XI: Recommendations for New Artists 52 Conclusion 54 Bibliography 56 1 Introduction This paper examines public relations professionals and how vital they have grown to be within the music industry. More specifically, this thesis explores a publicist’s responsibilities in the changing industry and effective strategies that have reduced the importance of record companies in an artist’s career. The old model of doing business is rapidly becoming obsolete. Once the 1990s approached, the industry was more predictable. The Internet’s influence began to grow and dominate causing things to change quickly. An example of this is that artists are now able to record and distribute their own content online without the help of a major label or contracts. Achieving the milestone of a record deal is a concept that is now vanishing. The idea of being “discovered” while paying to a small audience has grown somewhat impossible. The old music industry used to be all about the middleman, such as a record label, but now the middleman is rapidly diminishing. The industry needs someone who knows how to manipulate the middle machine in addition to mastering media coverage. Successful publicists should simply connect listeners to what they want and provide suggestions that they ultimately adopt. As a result of declining music sales, the pressure to offer more of an experience than simply listening to an album release or worldwide tour has soared dramatically. A strong campaign or media influence can make the difference between an album or a single making the charts or not profiting without public knowledge. 2 The bargaining power of consumers has become high. Today, the average consumer can purchase their music from a massive amount of different suppliers and can change suppliers easily without switching costs. Due to the wide variety of these choices, major labels do not maintain the power they once did. Instead, the power has shifted from the supplier to the consumer. The industry is constantly searching for ideas that enhance a song or an album and attract attention. Product offerings from major labels are now comparable to those of independent labels and thus competition tends to be higher. Public relations efforts have become major factors in an artist’s successes. The industry has become fragmented, which results in less market space for competitors. This thesis will maintain that despite massive industry changes and the advent of advanced technology, a publicist can thrive in all subcultures of the music industry while using proven public relations strategies/tactics. Technology has forced the music industry into a world of change. This change has affected almost every aspect of the music industry, from the artists to the record companies, publishers, retailers, media, and most importantly, for this study, to the publicists. With declining promotional budgets, especially at smaller labels, artists depend more on public relations to retain their visibility and relevance. Labels are taking advantage of new digital media channels and thus reducing their overall A&R (Artists and Repertoire) and marketing budget. 3 The industry’s marketing spend is estimated to have declined from $2.4 billion in 2008 to $1.7 billion in 2011 according to a report from the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). Keep in mind that while this figure may seem large, it encompasses every major label in the world. Major labels have downsized, album sales are decreasing and technology has emerged new outlets for artists to explore and be known. Further complicating the artist/publicist role is the emergence of independent or “indie” labels. An independent or “indie” label exists and is funding without the help of outside organizations or companies. As a result of these changes, the public relations role bears an enormous weight on improving an artist’s success. In addition to driving album and ticket sales, publicists within the music industry need to compose and demonstrate practices that creative types fail to consider. Major labels usually have larger distribution networks and budgets. However, as shown in the interviews that follow, an independent publicist can typically give the artist more creative control. Becoming an established publicist is a process that can take years of experience. A music publicist must know every aspect of the industry to manage a musician’s career and market ideas that deliver results. Because of this need, publicists are involved in every aspect of a musician’s career. Tasks such as aligning an artist with a big brand or hosting a contest around a release is of course effective, but it is not the bulk of a publicist’s responsibility. 4 In addition, he or she must know how to get through to those who deliver content to the public: music editors, disc jockeys and TV producers alike. If an artist is not well known to these content providers, the publicist must create a different angle to get unique attention for the act. This angle attracts the press and the publicist must decide which interviews are vital to take advantage of. The power of public relations in music exceeds selling a concert ticket or album. Once an artist is able to build an audience through public relations tactics, the artist will begin to possess influence and power within his or her creative sphere. The assistance of a publicist is necessary because, unfortunately, becoming a successful musician takes more than pure talent. The publicist’s role is to help someone that he or she believes to be musically gifted or commercially exploitable to obtain the commercial exposure they require to achieve their definition of creative success. The publicist is responsible for helping artists influence the lives of others and rewarding them with achievement and notoriety. A good publicist develops a working relationship with his or her artist(s) and educates them on why a certain method of selecting media works best with them. A publicist must believe in the client and communicate all decisions. Forming a level of trust provides less clashing of ideas between the publicist and the artist. Research Methodology In terms of research methodology, qualitative primary research for this thesis consisted of a series of interviews with established professionals within the music industry. While interviews tend to be subjective generally, these interviews helped 5 contextualize and clarify the changes in the music industry from unique perspectives and provided real-life examples of progress. Interviewees included Michelle Luna, Marketing Coordinator at Warner Brothers Records, and Sherrie Levy, publicist for artist Neil Diamond. The purpose of these interviews was to combine the perspective of a publicist who works with a specific artist for a long period of time as well as a publicist works at a record company where changes have been made and many artists have passed through. The author believes that both women have seen first-hand how the industry has changed and where a publicist’s role has advanced. Additionally, the author wanted to provide data through qualitative anecdotal research on sales for artists that the author mentioned throughout this thesis. This data was collected via Nielson Soundscan, a music sales tracking system used by most record companies. It was also beneficial to track MediaBase, which is service that monitors radio station airplay in the United States and Canada. The author opted not to focus on social media as a main research tool for this thesis because the Internet trends rapidly change. Even within a year, popular social media website change features or even disappear completely. Data that is two years old is no longer relevant to present day. To stand the test of time, it seems more relevant to utilize industry tool websites to illustrate a point. 6 Chapter I: Public Relations in the Present State of the Music Industry To the average person, it may be difficult to define what music publicity requires. Managers manage, artists perform booking agents book and music journalists/critics write all about it. Despite the key contributions from these professionals, a music industry public relations professional has arguably the most important role in the industry. Public relations specialists in the music industry are similar to other PR professionals who work for corporations. Those concentrating on music industry PR tend to either work in-house, for a big agency or in a freelance relationship with various artists or campaigns. The practice of music public relations has attracted such a following that publicity firms have been created for the sole purpose of serving the music industry. Indie PR firms concentrate solely on music based clients and operate independently from in-house PR departments. Successful indie music PR firms are typically derived from people with past experience working with major labels and agencies. This includes firms such as Cyber PR, created in 1996 and founded by Ariel Hyatt in Boulder, Colorado. Ariel’s success can be attributed to her wide-ranging music industry experience. She was not only a PR director for a national tour venue for five years, she also worked as a radio producer, in an artist management agency and indie record label before starting Cyber PR. 7 In addition to providing her publicity services, Ariel speaks at various music industry conferences, wrote two successful book on PR and new media and hosts a YouTube channel with over 20,000 subscribers where she educates musicians on taking advantage of the new digital world (Cyber 2013). Another more recent indie PR firm success is Motormouth Media, based in Los Angeles and New York. Judy Silverman founded Motormouth and achieved recognition when her firm booked over 15 national TV appearances for its clients in 2010. Julie and Motormouth provide their services sometimes in conjunction with labels and brand marketing strategies. Similar to a label, they offer full campaign management to strategic online placement or online only campaigns (CMJ 2011). In addition to these boutique firms, large agencies have composed entire departments dedicated to music. Rogers & Cowan houses a music entertainment content division (Rogers & Cowan 2013), Ketchum PR’s sport and entertainment division now includes a music marketing section (Ketchum 2013) and BWR PR has composed an entire music department (BWR 2013). With music sales on the decline, artists are encouraged to tour. In 1999, music sales peaked at about $14.6 billion annually. Ten years later in 2009, they barely scraped $6.3 billion. The decline can be seen in the figure below (CNN Money 2009). Record labels sign on artists who perform well because they must commit to television and radio appearances that showcase their skills. 8 In order to further illustrate the current state of music sales in present day, it is instructional to examine the Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS 2012 year-end music figures report. This report states that overall music purchased surpassed 1.65 billion units in 2012, just a three percent increase from the previous year (BusinessWire 2013). Within these slow sales, however, are artists who are bucking the trend. Impressively enough, Adele’s album 21 is the first in history to remain the top seller of the year for two consecutive years. Taylor Swift’s Red sold more than 3.1 million copies in just ten weeks, the highest weekly sales of a title since 2002. In 2012, the music industry saw a revenue increase for the first time since 1999. While it was not much, the total global revenue was $16.5 billion, up 0.3 percent. The chart below sufficiently breaks down how each source contributes to the total revenue (Frontliner 2013). 9 As physical recording sales decline, alternative methods of listening to music have been created. However, many have failed to provide a perfect alternative. While iTunes successfully locked down a market that is still willing to pay for music, a vast number of people are simply unwilling to pay for music. Streaming websites such as Pandora and Spotify come in at this point; however artists do not get paid a significant increase in revenue from them. A download of a file should not cost as much as a physical CD that had to be manufactured and shipped. They cost less, and the margins are smaller (Griffith 2013). How much an artist actually makes on streaming can be seen through Zoe Keating, a cello player who discussed her streaming revenue in a recent New York Times 10 profile piece. Her songs had been played more than 1.5 million times on Pandora over six months and she earned $1,652.74. On Spotify, 131,000 plays last year netted just $547.71, an average of .0042 cent a play (Sisario 2013). Pandora pays out more than 60 percent of its revenues to artists. Spotify’s rate is closer to 70 percent, paying out $500 million last year. Up until 2012, Spotify had paid out $500 million total between 2008 and 2012. The services often point out these numbers, and their balance sheets, as evidence that they are compensating artists well. The sums they pay are vastly higher than terrestrial radio’s going rate of zero dollars, or satellite radio, which pays a rate slightly higher than zero (Griffith 2013). While physical sales are indeed decreasing, the sales of vinyl reached 4.6 million units last year, which is nearly a 500 percent increase from 2007 (Cava 2013). This is interesting to compare to sales of compact discs, which slumped down 13 percent last year to 130 million units total. The newest trends in collectible vinyl can perhaps be attributed to those who desire the experience contained in a full-length record rather than a digital single. These year-end market share statistics depict how much stake major labels have in album sales (BusinessWire 2013). As recently as this year, Universal Music Group completed the acquisition of EMI distribution. The figure below reflects EMI’s contribution for only three quarters prior to the shift. This is a good example of how major labels are merging to accommodate revenue loss in a time of minimal music sales. 11 Music distribution companies are created constantly. The creation of these companies steals business functions away from existing labels, and technology is making it easier for artists to integrate forward. As a result of a lot of industry consolidation, the competitive space in the market is intense. With the declining number of record companies, essential responsibilities such as event planning, media outreach and campaign creation now fall solely on the publicist. With many responsibilities accumulating on the publicists at a record label, duties often get outsourced to others. Tasks for a specific campaign are sometimes assigned to an outside agency. One cannot exactly generalize or quantify a music PR campaign in terms of money or impressions. It is possible to attempt by how many albums were sent to publications for review, what responses were, even if they resulted negatively. Placement for an artist can be defined as an article, CD review, calendar listing or TV/radio 12 interview. Long lead press includes magazines with national distribution such as SPIN or Rolling Stone. These publications must have stories to their editors up to three months in advance. Soon artists will only need publicists and managers to tackle all of the responsibilities that come with managing their career. However, an established publicist well-versed in both industries is essential. There are myriad responsibilities for the music industry publicist ranging from media relations to branding to understanding complex legal issues. All of these will be examined in this paper. These established professionals help to avert tragedy or disappointment in an artist’s career. It is easy for a performer to start out successful and then fade away. An example can be seen in failure to have knowledge of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and sampling laws. The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade group that effectively represents the entire recorded music industry, whose members include all major record labels, as well as a very large number of independents (RIAA, 2010). Analyzing musical notes and music scores to ensure originality within RIAA standards can help prevent a lawsuit for lack of a proper license. Many record companies devote an entire department to handle licensing. This is one key advantage for major labels. Publicists must have knowledge of legal issues before managing a campaign effort for an artist. While it is not necessarily in a publicist’s job description, it is an element that must be examined and prepared for. Most recorded songs have two separate 13 owners that one must deal with. These are the person who wrote the composition and the person or entity who owns the sound recording itself. Licensing costs for samples can often be expensive for independent artists and small labels. A sample is portion, roughly 4 to 8 bars of sheet music, taken from another established song. This sample can also be similar sounding, if not exact, to another song. If a song containing samples that are not cleared by the RIAA does not achieve major success, then it usually does not come to the attention of the copyright owner. This copyright owner would have to invest time and money into tracking the violator down, sending a claims letter and trying to resolve the issue. An example of poor licensing knowledge was illustrated by British rock group, The Verve. In June 1997, they established credibility and success with their massive hit, “Bittersweet Symphony.” The lyrics to the song were written by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, but the live symphony notes contained in the melody were sampled from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of The Rolling Stones’ 1965 song “The Last Time” (Oldham, 1965). The Verve had negotiated a license to use a sample from the Oldham recording. Unfortunately, even after obtaining the license, it was ruled that The Verve had used “too much” of the sample (Prato). The group had established permission to use exactly four bars of the orchestrated rendition. However, it was argued the song heavily relied on these four bars within the vocal melody. Further violating the law, the bongo drums in the track have led to a lawsuit with ABKCO Records, Allen Keith’s company that owns the rights for the Rolling Stones 14 material of the 1960s. The lawsuit resulted in copyright of “Bittersweet Symphony” reverting to ABKCO and the songwriting credits now belong to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones instead of Ashcroft. Bassist of The Verve, Simon Jones, said that the band was not given much choice in the matter. “We were told it was going to be a 50/50 split, and then they saw how well the record was doing. They rang up and said, ‘We want 100 percent or take it out of the shops’” (McCormick 2009). This unfortunate incident could have been prevented with proper examination of RIAA sampling restrictions by a knowledgeable music industry publicist. To this day, The Verve has not received any profits from their biggest hit, as ABKCO was able to seize 100 percent of all royalties. The publicist in this situation could have contacted sample clearance companies devoted to detecting conflict or suggested use of creative commons material that contains no licensing hassles. Sample clearance companies such as Deborah Mannis-Gardner or RightsFlow pride themselves on offering services that are easier than tracking down a record or publishing company and can provide help to a smaller artist (DMG). Even if the publicist had not caught this error, the situation could have been magnified to get fan support and keep The Verve’s name newsworthy. Rather than the band fading away and becoming less relevant, a publicist and his or her team would have possessed the strategies to help The Verve fight back. 15 In this case, the media coverage was minimal and the band never issued an official statement. Few interviews document any band members’ feelings or explanation of the incident. This incident could have outraged fans. That outrage could have lead to an organized boycott of purchasing Rolling Stones records, with the accompanying potential for media attention. A publicist should have alerted media outlets and offered the band members for comments. The public would have been drawn by this unique situation, developed further interest in the band and even possibly portrayed Keith Richards and Mick Jagger negatively to the public. This would have led to an increased respect for The Verve in the public eye. The group has faded away commercially in recent years and split ways for their third time in 2009 (Dombal 2009). With increased spotlight on the issue, it is entirely possibly that media pressure could have influenced a re-examining of the case. 16 Chapter II: Music Industry PR and the Relationship with Record Companies The relationship between major record companies and musicians who sign with them has been on edge in recent years. Once digital downloads began affecting labels more than musicians, artists and publicists turned to more creative strategies that would result in revenue. The graph below breaks down Nielsen research of who gets paid for what in a song or album download in a typical record label scenario (Jefferson 2010). 17 In recent times, record companies have welcomed outside publicists to work with newly signed artists. This means that publicists at a record company have less responsibility and a smaller roster of artists that they work with completely. In the beleaguered music industry, publicists cannot afford to focus on selling just music anymore. Marketing director of Warner Brothers Records, Michelle Luna said that sometimes problems arise when independent publicists are brought in to work with the label on projects. “Some indies don’t service music and videos in the same way our in-house publicists do. Sometimes information can slip between the cracks if we just rely on one person to do it,” she said. “Sometimes an indie feels entitled to the project and does not want to work with another publicist, so it can make the project difficult.” An artist’s publicist successfully acts as a buffer between the artist and label. Proper placement established by a publicist affects success of sales and proper branding that ensure awareness of an artist to the public. Generating a loyal fan base is perhaps the most important aspect to generating revenue. The artist needs to remain relevant and interesting. Major labels do not receive income from performance rights, appearances, films or television. The main advantages of a record company that a publicist has to compete with are establishing proper legal publishing and copyrights, securing a supporting act spot on tour for a well-known artist and achieving radio play for a well-known artist. 18 Record companies also have established professionals whose career is devoted to detecting potential licensing or copyright issues. Each one of the major record labels maintains a music licensing department. In fact, BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) reported that 2009 was their best year to date with over $905 million paid out to artists. The year 2012 is not far behind in these numbers, reporting $794 paid out. This illustrates that the music industry can make money, but only to those who position themselves correctly. BMI’s total revenues also continue to remain profitable, seen in the figure below (BMI 2012). Another huge advantage is that major labels have a roster that include artists who have already established a fan base and can use their following as an outlet to exposure 19 smaller bands. Artists who make the company lots of money are treated extremely well. These artists also serve as somewhat of an advertisement to other acts at the label. This old system model has been around for years and the well-known names have attempted to reinvent themselves. Essentially, artists are not recouped when they are signed to a label, that is, they owe their label money. Major labels spend on producers, videos, marketing and other expenses. The artists are responsible for paying all these costs back, and until the label recoups or recovers these expenses, artists do not receive any record royalties. The superstars of a major label are recouped because they eventually make enough money to pay back the costs they incurred during the start of their career. Record labels prove useful for risk aggregation. The percentage of bands that reach the level of being signed is extremely minimal. Even out of this minimal amount, those who succeed is only about five percent. The band O.K. Go, famous for their treadmill music video, discussed their separation with record label EMI on the Adam Corolla podcast. Front man Damian Kulash cited the big record label business model as one of their motivators for the split (Corolla 2011). “You sign 100 bands and assume five of them are going to succeed, the other 95 fail,” they explained. “You just need to make enough back from those five, which is why record contracts are so onerous in the first place for successful artists, because the money you are now making is paying for the other 95 percent who failed.” 20 The costs of introducing an artist into a major market is quite large for a record company and can be up to $1.4 million. Typically, it is broken down into the following (IFPI 2012): • Payment of an Advance: $200,000 • Recording Costs: $200,000 - $300,000 • Video Production Costs: $50,000 – $300,000 • Tour Support: $100,000 • Marketing and Promotional Costs: $200,000 - $500,000 Similar to a publicist, these labels use previously-built relationships to place artists’ music for distribution online and in stores. Distribution is fairly easy; however, money is not made without proper promotion and placement. This can include features on iTunes or free download cards available at Starbucks. Landing an opportunity through such a well-established outlet would require a well-connected person who can pitch it. Publicists are opting to team up with record label publicity departments for certain artists. For example, the author participated in a promotional campaign for recording artist Michael Buble. The Canadian singer attempted to reach out to the increasingly popular “mommy blogger” audience as part of the promotion for his Christmas record. In order to save time, Warner Bros. Records hired an outside agency to provide them with a list of dependable contacts, secure reviews of an album and send out promotional copies of the record to these sources. This arrangement proved to be successful as the publicity department within a record label typically does not have experience with such a niche audience. 21 An independent publicist provides an increasingly personal feel with individualized attention. This element stands out in a time where musicians do not generally trust record labels due to their failure rate. It was stated earlier that 95 percent of all recording contracts fail (Love 2000). This is because a recording contract does not make progress without both parties promoting the product. Michelle Luna said that artists who come to the label with their own publicists could benefit from the label’s contacts. However, she notes that the clashing of ideas can sometimes be difficult to work with. “This is becoming more common because we are signing bands that already have a following…now bands are in a position to hire a publicist, even for a month or two, to promote whatever they’ve released. Before, we signed bands that were brand new, so we didn’t run into this issue.” Warner has been able to save money by not hiring third-party marketing companies and doing most of the marketing in-house. “Jobs (at Warner Brothers Records) have been condensed by people taking on more roles,” she said. “We’ve also downsized many of our recording and marketing budgets for our artists to ensure that we only do what is actually going to help the artist.” The most successful artists are constantly in the news. A publicist must be good at his or her job and have dependable connections. Working for a recognized label may help; however, professional publicists can land the same media coverage on their own, provided they have excellent pitching skills. 22 Luna notes that while the Warner Brothers Records publicity team is well versed in all types of online, interactive, and print media, they also have strong relationships with tour bookers. Independent publicists tend to reach out on a local media level. “A lot of indies are very focused on blogs, which is great, but some artists need a bigger reach,” she said. “Indie publicists have the same process, but it’s more about the level of publications and reach we have.” Landing a piece in such a well-established media outlet requires a publicist to plan in advance with an album release and coordinate with his or her artist in order to decide what’s best. Prepared lead-time in every case is essential. Ariel Hyatt, creator of indie music firm Cyber PR, explained her recommended “Publicity Campaign Lead Times” below (Hyatt 2011). • National Campaign: 3-4 months before album release • Tour Press Campaign: 4-6 weeks before the shows • Local Campaign: 4-6 weeks before placement • Online Campaign: 2-3 weeks before placement Achieving recognition for your artist is the key role of the publicist. The author will explore this notion next. 23 Chapter III: Achieving Recognition Outreach methods through multimedia must include song appearances, recognition and placement. This includes radio, television, movies and one of the main influencers: television commercials. Brand partnerships and synch deals have grown in importance. Synch income has increased from negligible figures in 2008 to $342 million globally in 2011 (IFPI 2012). Denver rock band, The Lumineers, were unheard of by the masses until this past year. After ten years of performing as a group with minimal commercial success, their single “Ho Hey” was licensed for use in a television advertisement for the Internet search engine, Bing. This advertisement resulted in higher recognition for the band than it did for the service that it was intended to advertise. “Ho Hey” shot to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in weeks following the commercial airdate (Riemenschneider 2012). Lumineers lead singer Wesley Schultz said in an interview that he had no qualms about licensing “Ho Hey” to excessive commercial use. “We’ve been doing this for about ten years now, and all of the sudden it’s like we’re on the fast track, in a very exciting and surreal kind of way,” he explained. Historically, the most common placement of songs was in high-grossing films. Perhaps the most noticeable gain can be seen in the 2004 film, Garden State. In a notable scene of the film, Natalie Portman’s character praises indie rockers, The Shins, and insisted that listening to one of their songs will “change your life” (Fox Searchlight 2004). 24 The group went on to sell out amphitheaters following the film’s popularity (McGrady, 2012). Seeing The Shins soar onto the charts, Garden State raised the bar for lesser-known artists finding success through movie soundtrack placement. A more extreme example of indie band that achieved massive success through television advertisements can be seen with the band called Fun. This New York City based rock group released their song, “We Are Young,” for usage in a Chevrolet Sonic commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLVI. The band attained massive success after Super Bowl Sunday when "We Are Young" peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their album containing the single, Some Nights, debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 3, selling 70,000 copies, with digital albums comprising nearly 72% of sales (SoundScan). It was this song that led to Fun’s relevance and their win for Best New Artist at the 2013 Grammy Awards. “We Are Young” went on to win Song of the Year, one of the most prestigious titles awarded at the Grammys. The cost for a 2011 Super Bowl XLV advertisement was approximately $3 million for a 30-second spot, making it the most expensive advertisement of the year (Horovitz, 2011). Because the Super Bowl reaches over 90 million viewers, some of the most creative, as well as expensive (in terms of production cost), advertisements are produced specifically for this day. Advertisers have found that “music is a great vehicle to be relevant with consumers across boundaries whether ethnic, geographic or age” (Kunze). Advertisements for specific brands or products have been known to emphasize song placement. Apple product commercials have become highly sought after for song 25 placement. Artists such as Jet, The Fratellis and The Ting Tings all saw a sharp spike in sales of their singles as a result of Apple commercials. Perhaps the best-known example is Canadian singer-songwriter Feist, who Apple chose to be the face of the iPod Nano in 2007. Her catchy vocals helped launch the product to the world and her career was thereby jump-started. Nearly half a million people searched the song on Google after the ad was aired. Digital sales of the single doubled and YouTube hits on the music video reached more than 1000% in comparison to the previous month (Elliott 2010). Not every commercial containing a song results in such massive success. Placement must be with the right song for the right time. Michelle Luna said that at Warner Bros. Records many artists assume that they will automatically achieve a successful synch and everyone will know their names; however, that strategy does not work for every artist. “They assume they’ll get an amazing synch like how Feist was used when the iPod came out,” she said. “It’s very unrealistic.” The overall goal of securing placement in commercials, television shows and films are to reach a massive audience without radio play. Airplay is difficult to achieve because of the consolidation of radio. There is now much less airtime available for new artists and songs because there are fewer radio stations. While satellite radio has emerged in recent years as a viable outlet for lesser-known artists, commercial radio still seems to possess the most influence. 26 In the past, Payola allowed major labels to pay large amount of money to guarantee their song radio airplay on commercial radio. This has since been outlawed, however, as recently as 2006, accusations of similar transactions have been reported. With the 2005-06 prosecutions by then-New York governor Eliot Spitzer of major record companies, Universal Music Group paid $12 million to settle accusations that executives paid radio programmers to play songs. Mr. Spitzer also sued Entercom Communications for trading airplay for money in the previous year (Leeds 2006). The consolidation of radio is accurately recapped in Hugh Hession’s article “Why Is It So Hard To Get Radio Airplay?” He states that record companies pitch a hit single to a radio station through influential ways. This includes providing giveaways for concert tickets, mp3 players, and other items. This method proves to be positive for the artist responsible for the single as they get paid for each time the song is played on air. The record company makes money on the single and the radio station benefits by an increased amount of listeners (Hession 2010). While it is true that airplay is not always directly correlated with record sales, a major label’s reputation and influence to a station can be a positive resource for an artist. However, this is not by any means guaranteed or an easy task for a label. Luna noted that artists often assume that their single will automatically get serviced to radio and receive airplay. “To service a single doesn’t mean played unfortunately,” she said. “I think the expectations need to be set from the beginning – not every song is a radio song.” 27 Radio can reach nearly everyone. Particularly in a commuter city such as Los Angeles, any person with a car can instantly consume a song by switching on their FM. Music programs such as “All Songs Considered” on National Public Radio provide a wonderful outlet for lesser-known artists to be exposed. Once a single is serviced to a particular genre of radio station, the most popular being Top 40, Alternative or Hot AC, the amount of times the track plays on the station in a market generally results in higher sales of the song. For example, if a rock song receives airplay on KROQ FM in Los Angeles, the potential audience is 1.05 million people. Overall, there is a 28 percent guaranteed reach to the KROQ audience at any given time. According to Mediabase, mid-day and evening have the highest potential reach at 25 percent in the afternoon and 20 percent in the evening. Due to talk shows and morning programming, the morning reach is only 10 percent. A Top 40 station such at KIIS FM has an even higher audience potential clocking in a total of 5.1 million (Mediabase). 28 Chapter IV: Achieving Recognition Part II: Album Sales Internet downloading has severely reduced the sales of full-length albums, both physically and online. As a result, artists have attempted to enhance representation of their albums by including extra content and features such as a DVD with live footage or a discount applied to a future concert ticket for the artist. The number of albums has also been growing rapidly. Nielson SoundScan estimates that 38,000 new albums were released in 2003, a figure that swelled to 106,000 by 2008, then fell during the recession to 75,000 in 2010 (Soundscan). Public relations practitioners create marketable aspects within the record in order to increase a consumer’s motivation to purchase. A music industry publicist’s job is to find an element or hook that is not already offered in the market and incorporate the idea into the product or artist. This is especially evident with older artists who attempt to remain relevant. In 2011, vintage punk rock band Social Distortion released its first album in seven years, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes. This album was also the band’s first release with prominent indie label, Epitaph Records. Social Distortion has previously been a part of Sony Music, but left after their contract was up. To ensure fans that the record was worth purchasing, full streaming became available online a week prior to release. Listeners were told that the larger the number of streams calculated for the entire album meant the lower the price would be for anyone to purchase it (Fisher 2011). This method was widely received, resulting in a 25 percent increase in sales on Amazon.com each day the streaming took place. 29 When an album is enhanced, it includes extra tracks and gets re-branded. Traditionally, re-releases of newer albums do not tend to sell well. For example, hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj reissued Pink Friday as Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. This album made its way into stores on November 19, seven months after the original. The new album contained eight new tracks along with a DVD of behind-the-scenes footage from the studio and her time on the road. This reissue only sold around 34,000 copies in the first week (SoundScan). Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream reissue sold even less at 33,000 (SoundScan). One may ask why these enhanced albums do not perform well. One reason is the resistance of major retail chains such as Target and Wal-Mart. Both retailers do not sell these albums because previous reissues have not performed well. Nicki Minaj was vocal about this issue on a radio program. "It is hard to get the album because the stores basically said that the last few re- releases they had put out did not do well and they didn't want to take a chance," Nicki Minaj explained in an interview with Power 105.1. "So, Target and Walmart are not selling the album. Target is actually my biggest retailer— they've always been my biggest retailer. They've sold the most Nicki Minaj albums ever, so, thank you, Target. But I wish you could've sold this one." These re-releases count towards the sales of the original release. Within the recording industry, this is a time where all profit squeezed from consumers matters. The reissue contributions may be marginal, but margins matter. The units would not have been moved otherwise (Cantor 2012). 30 Newer artists such as Katy Perry have still been able to produce steady physical album sales despite industry trends. The singer’s sophomore album, Teenage Dream, created a Candy Land pop theme that was heavily accentuated throughout various promotional efforts. This theme was created to match her personal brand and fashion. In an interview leading up to the album’s release, the singer told MTV that the physical compact disc for Teenage Dream would be cotton candy-scented. The journalist covering the story admitted that he was so “impressed by the gimmick “ that he actually bought a physical copy of the CD, even though he already owned a digital copy (Anderson 2010). As a result, media sources gathered enthusiasm of the product before her release. The story was picked up on internationally through outlets like MTV, CBS, and Marie Claire. These abnormal features create newsworthy stories that reach a mass audience. Katy Perry’s candy pop wonderland was effective because she offered an experience other than music along with her album. A band or artist must establish themselves as a brand in addition to their music to grow into a sensation or successful artist. When Radiohead released In Rainbows in 2007, they had no label whatsoever because their prior contract with EMI had expired. The band offered fans the option to pay any price they thought was fair for their new album on the Internet. This did not deter fans from purchasing the physical copy. In fact, the album sold 100,000 copies in its first week. 31 “In terms of digital income, we’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever, in terms of anything on the net. And that’s nuts,” said lead singer Thom Yorke in an interview (Byrne 2007). A year after the release, Radiohead’s publisher Warner Chappell calculated additional statistics during a music industry conference. In Rainbows had been bought three million times. This included downloads, CDs and the $60 'Discboxes' that featured additional content and were pre-orderable when the original download went live. Of those sales, 1.75 million were CDs, and 100,000 discboxes. These discboxes had a gross revenue of $6 million alone (Ally 2008). With willingness to connect with their fans, Radiohead tried a new technique that made them money without the help of a major label. New artists can take away two major publicity goals from the release of In Rainbows: be open with new methods of getting your music to the public and relate to your fans as much as possible. 32 Chapter V: Achieving Recognition Part III – Musicians as a Personal Brand Working exclusively to maintain a specific image through branding can dictate to the public who they compare an artist to. The creation and sale of products associated with a musician’s brand maintains a revenue stream lost in present day music sales. Personal branding encompasses everything from how an artist looks to cities selected for touring to their digital persona to their merchandise. The systematic promotion of organizational goals, products, images, and ideologies are essentially all part of the brand of the artist. The worst enemy of personal branding is implausibility. Musicians with a personal brand should be as real as possible, at least within the bounds of the brand or image they project. To create a solidified brand for an artist, it must consist of the real personality, voice, interested and habits (Deckers and Lacy 2011, 7). Sherrie Levy, Neil Diamond’s publicist of 20 years, has noticed that the emphasis has shifted. “Unfortunately, record company executives decided that they were more important than the artists,” she said. “The companies were more concerned with making their ‘numbers’ than in building their business with artist development.” Levy predicts that the change in media makes it increasingly difficult to reach a broad audience. 33 “The media interest in private lives over public achievements makes it more difficult to focus on music and appearances,” she noted. As a result, Levy believes there is pressure to make building an artist brand more important than the artistic achievement. Scooter Braun, manager of pop sensation Justin Bieber, discussed the importance of artist branding not growing “so big, that people forget to look at the music,” in a recent article for New York Magazine. Braun prides himself on efficiently creating “revenue streams that labels wouldn’t think of.” He attempts to make sure Bieber and other clients do not look back and wonder if they could have profited off an idea. Braun produced the film Never Say Never, a 2011 account of Bieber’s life that became the highest-grossing concert film in U.S. history. This movie and related products such as watches, backpacks, shower curtains and home collections resulted in Bieber’s annual income exceeding an estimated $50 million (Widdicombe, 2012). Braun has carefully made Bieber’s marketing image massive without completely overshadowing his image as a musician. Artists like Lady Gaga stay in their character or personally brand virtually all of the time. Her controversial interviews, costume choices and insistence of her personality defines her overall personal brand rather than relying on the press to make assumptions about her. Personal branding is much more about who an artist is rather than what they have to offer. Lady Gaga’s performances depict a spectacle and her music videos are eagerly awaited by millions. She has established an exclusive group of followers who feel as if, outside of music, they are misfits. Lady Gaga refers to her fans as “Little Monsters” and 34 dubs herself the “Mother Monster”. This nickname system works particularly well because the name itself reinforces a familial-esque relationship between mother and child and is consistent with the misfit liberation brand (Under30CEO). Lady Gaga knows her audiences and makes an effort to cater directly to them. In the Fall of 2012, she developed her own perfume line, Fame. The promotional efforts for this one personal branding component are thorough. After two teaser trailers were released, the final two-minute video debuted in September of 2012 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Lady Gaga also appeared on the cover of Vogue to promote the product (Heffernan 2012). 35 Chapter VI: Tour Publicity A tour publicist is the most valuable asset in securing ticket sales and creating awareness about specific shows. He or she is in charge of making sure that both the fans and media are up to date on when an artist is coming to town to perform. While road tours sometimes create stress for people, tour publicists work under more pressure than home-based publicists. They must have ability to travel and enjoy being on the road for long stretches of time (Field 2010). Before a tour begins traveling, a publicist establishes viable support, dates, demographic-supported markets and campaigns to spread awareness of the performance. Just as an album release requires promotion, a tour cannot sell tickets without public knowledge of the event. The timeline below outlines an accurate example of the responsibilities and goals that are laid out in the planning process of a tour campaign. This particular demonstration was to promote a Seattle-based band, Prototype, going on tour for the first time (Knab 2010). 36 During a worldwide tour, a route must be planned out to strategically reach new markets and gain exposure for the artist. New media will be reached on tour and the 37 publicist must assist in handling the most viable sources to create awareness and excitement for concertgoers. A tour publicist establishes national and local media coverage. This can include concert reviews, interviews with local radio stations and listing the show in the upcoming event section of a newspaper. In the past, tour publicists would serve as part of traveling tour and accompany the artist to each city. Their responsibility was mainly to deal with local photographers and television crews. It was not uncommon for a publicist to converse with television producers or talent coordinators prior to interviews taking place. Local press coverage is established prior to an artist’s travel. While this still exists, recently venues have hired their own PR people to deal with local media on behalf of the artist, making the physical presence of a tour publicist less necessary. Encyclopedic knowledge of venues, promoters and contracts is needed in addition to publicity knowledge. Failure to master these types of details can destroy the success of a tour. In addition to music-based publications such as Billboard or Rolling Stone Magazine, it is essential for a tour publicist to have contacts at media outlets that cover concert reviews. This could mean someone from the New York Times reviewing a performance in the city or even a local Arizona weekly paper. Publicists must know technical terms in order to effectively communicate with others, understand and deal with budgetary concerns. For instance, the term “backline” includes the extra cost to ship performance equipment that can cut into an overall budget. 38 The acceptable space is usually known as anything that will not fit in the overhead compartment of an airplane. An instrument such as an upright bass can limit touring options and add unanticipated high costs to a touring budget. 39 Chapter VII: Public Relations For Tour Campaigns Just as the selling of albums attempts to create an experience beyond the music for consumers, tours and festivals must strive to do the same. Artists make more of a profit through touring and merchandise sold on the road than they do through sales of their recorded music. The top five global live acts of 2011 were U2, Bon Jovi, Take That, Roger Waters and Taylor Swift (IFPI 2012). To give an idea, Taylor Swift was reported to make more than $45 million in 2011 in combined album sales, touring, merchandise and endorsements. According to Forbes, Swift grossed over $1 million per night on more than 65 dates (Forbes 2012). Stephen Chilton, founder of Arizona independent booking agency Psyko Steve Presents, said that while artists used to promote albums and singles, they now see these releases as a way to promote going on tour. “Record labels are now less likely to give artists tour support which means there is more pressure for tours to be profitable,” he said. “This has led to more small artists charging promoters and venues higher guarantees which leads to higher ticket prices.” Chilton said the fees are usually tied to the ticket prices. Since smaller venues mainly sell tickets at the door, they don’t have fees associated with them on top of the price of a ticket. 40 “The main reason ticket prices are on the rise is artists,” he said. “Artists have the largest say in what prices are and they have to cover their own transportation and lodging costs.” Chairman of Live Nation Southwest, Danny Zeilisko said that people sometimes think that a group is paid based on what is charged or how they draw. However, in almost every case, the band is guaranteed a fixed price by a promoter and gets paid that price if one person shows up or if thousands do. Every show contains what is called a “backend percentage”. The backend is the amount that the artist is guaranteed to be paid regardless of how many tickets the promoter sells. Artists also can be paid a lower financial take and have 50 percent of the ticket sales. Sometimes this can generate a more beneficial profit for the artist. When booking for an artist, the publicist examines whether or not he or she will be able to sellout the market or venue. Research must be conducted with radio play, past ticket sales and sometimes polling the market through the promoter. American rock group Aerosmith presents an example of how an older, credible band stays relevant in present day through a touring promotion. With the release of the widely popular video game Guitar Hero, many older artists with songs featured in the program saw their sales spike. Aerosmith then partnered with the game system and released their own version that contained only their songs. During their 2009 world tour, Aerosmith promoted this product through a contest that involved fan interaction while created awareness of their ongoing tour. They 41 involved younger fan base by inviting kids to post videos of themselves playing the Aerosmith Guitar Hero version on YouTube. The selected winner of these submissions got to play Guitar Hero as an opening act of Aerosmith’s closest tour stop (Guitar World, 2009). This is a perfect example to illustrate how a tour campaign can reach another demographic, promote a product, involve fans and advertise a tour at the same time. Technology and social media have satisfied a huge role in involving fans with their artists, particularly in tour publicity campaigns. Coachella, the increasingly popular California music festival, partnered with a new Wrigley product, 5 Gum, in order to fund an online streaming effort for the 2011 event. 5 Gum offered free streaming of the performances through their website. Not only did this drive traffic to 5 Gum’s website, the technology included a Twitter feed with any viewers who contributed the hash tag #coahellalive for the festival in their posts. This and a promoted tweet resulted in the #coachellalive hash tag being one of the top discussion posts over the weekend as you can see in the figure below (Skepys, 2011). 42 This successful campaign resulted in 5 Gum seeing a 10 percent increase in Facebook followers, 16 percent of Twitter (Skepys, 2011). It gained placement in local and national media and led to increased 2012 attendance, selling out the entire festival. In order to accommodate the large demand, the festival expanded to two weekends the following year. 43 Chapter VIII: When Music Tours Go Awry Even though publicists do not draft contracts, agreements or performance bids, it is vital for them to have knowledge of the requirements of these legal documents. Some examples include recording agreements that specify what devices can be used vary upon location or a venue’s agreement could restrict a social media campaign, online streaming or media coverage. In 2009, pop group The Black Eyed Peas were criticized for their extensive rider contract, which is a list of required items that must be available backstage for each performance. British newspaper the Mirror reported that the group demanded a tour bus with recording studio, private jet and helicopter to perform at England’s most popular music festival, Glastonbury. Their rider was compared to a simpler version that the group required before their commercial success, seen below. 44 This bad press could have been avoided had the publicist protected the information or adopted a proper crisis communication plan. Noting the outlandish changes, an alert publicist could have taken the group aside and explained how their lavish requests could negatively affect their image. Had a relationship between the tour publicist and group been well established, they would have trusted the publicist’s input and compromised on their overall rider. 45 Aside from seemingly poor judgment, a touring crisis can also result from unexpected injury. The hip injury Lady Gaga incurred during her “Born This Way Ball” tour forced Live Nation Global Touring to immediately shut down one of the most successful pop tours in history. Through January 2013, the tour had grossed $168.2 million and moved $1.6 million tickets to 85 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore (Waddell 2013). The singer’s hip injury stopped the tour, and required surgery and significant healing time. Had the tour continued its scheduled North America dates with as much success, the tour could have reached more than $200 million gross. Fans grew upset with the notion that they would have to wait up to a year to see Lady Gaga’s next performance. A new album from the pop star is expected in 2013, it will be interesting to note how promotion efforts surround the release with Lady Gaga on limited mobility. A similar situation arose with the massive U2 360 stadium tour in 2010. Lead singer Bono had to undergo back surgery, which forced the postponement of 16 stadium shows. This affected about one million tickets already sold, which were worth about $100 million. To keep fans happy and fix the situation, the dates were rescheduled for the following year, with fans holding onto 97 percent of tickets sold. Due to the high demand for U2’s performance and the quick follow through, the small percentage of no-shows for the rescheduled dates did not effect the success of the 360 tour as it went on to become the highest grossing tour in history at more than $736 million, again according to Boxscore (Waddell 2011). 46 Chapter IX: Brand Partnerships Another large part of tour publicity is landing powerful brand partnerships, performance reviews and interviews in local and national media. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that corporations first began to take note of how brand partnerships can generate profitability and visibility for a sponsor. In 1982, Jovan/Musk Oil sponsored the Rolling Stones’ U.S. tour for $1 million, marking a significant shift towards marketers creating further connections to popular musicians (McLaren). Tour publicists are responsible for generating campaigns to drive awareness of fans that otherwise might not be driven to spend money on tickets. Securing local media is important to an artist to raise recognition among non-ticket holders. Neil Diamond has had a tour publicist on the road for many years to professionally deal with local photographers and TV crews. In the last ten years, this publicist, Sherrie Levy, said that most venues have hired their own public relations people to help assist with local media, making the job of an ongoing tour publicist less necessary within smaller markets. However, it may prove essential for a tour publicist to ensure a uniform message in all outlets, as well as attract national and online media. Levy has found that the most effective way to launch a tour is to announce it simultaneously with the release of new music in a national campaign, while creating the awareness to look for announcements in local media. 47 “Advertising sells tickets on a local level, of course, social media has enabled an artist to spread word of a tour to fans without using traditional media,” she said. “If 20,000 people exist in a market that may fit in the arena for the show but a cover story in the entertainment section of a local newspaper will reach greater numbers.” 48 Chapter X: Crisis Communication in Tour Publicity Without proper publicity management, an artist’s mishap can negatively affect his or her future reputation, album sales and overall relevance. This is illustrated through the example of Tennessee rock band Kings of Leon, who saw short-lived success with their album Only By The Night. After existing for nearly a decade of performing, the band had finally achieved Top 40 singles, Grammy nominations and sold-out tours. A performance on July 23 rd , 2011 changed everything. On that date, the band halted a set in St. Louis after a mere three songs due to what was explained as pigeons defecating in the band members’ mouths. This affected only one event date and concertgoers were offered a full refund via Live Nation. The explanation through statements attempting to explain the incident bordered on unprofessional, as shown by drummer Nathan Followill’s short Twitter post (through his personal account) sent shortly after the show: 49 The manager took it upon himself to issue his own opinion while trashing the venue and those who complained. "Don't take it out on Jared, it's the f**king venue's fault. You may enjoy being sh*t on but we don't. Sorry for all who traveled many miles,” said band manager Andy Mendelsohn in a statement. "I'm surprised they stayed on for as many songs as they did. Jared was hit several times during the first two songs. On the third song, when he was hit in the cheek and some of it landed near his mouth, they couldn't deal any longer. It's not only disgusting — it's a toxic hazard. They really tried to hang in there" (Kreps 2010). These statements were issued prematurely and were not consistent. The opening band for Kings of Leon did not cite any problems performing on the same stage right before them. Had the publicity been handled properly, an official statement could have been issued. This statement would assist explaining the situation in a way that evoked sympathy towards the band’s performance conditions. There would not be any placing the blame on others involved. Cursing at the venue cannot only damage a relationship at one place, but cause other venue promoters to be hesitant about booking the group in the future. The following month Lead singer Caleb Followill suffered from “vocal issues and exhaustion” and canceled the remaining 2011 tour after he vomited and ended another show early in Dallas, Texas. 50 These incidents were not handled properly and affected sales of their follow-up album, Come Around Sundown, in 2010. The record only sold over two million copies worldwide, significantly lower than Only By The Night, which sold over 6.2 million (SoundScan). This type of crisis does not always damage a career permanently. A tour campaign can influence the public’s perception of an artist for better or worse. Rihanna’s “777 Tour” proved to be a valid idea that resulted in a public relations nightmare. The campaign, put together by Rihanna’s label Def Jam, invited 200 journalists, fans and label representatives to fly around the world with the singer to see her perform in seven countries within the span of seven days. At first, writers were impressed by the effort when Rihanna came to introduce herself the first day. This excitement quickly turned to frustration in coverage following the tour when journalists did not see or hear from her following their first interaction. Rolling Stone writer Jeff Rosenthal stated that the group of journalists were constantly crammed into a bus and subjected to “sitting in parking lots, waiting for hours.” At one point, he stated that Rihanna went shopping for lingerie in Paris while the entire crew of 200 waited for her on the tarmac (Rosenthal 2012). Various reports from publications such as Fuse, Billboard, Forbes and Rolling Stone complained of severe exhaustion. Fuse TV documented frustration on crowded planes that included journalists chanting phrases “just one quote!”, “save our jobs!”, and “Rih! Rih! Rih!” repeatedly (Esteban 2012). A radio shock jock from Australia, Tim Dorner, ran through the entire plane naked in protest. 51 “We were looking for a story,” said Fuse TV reporter Esteban Serrano. “We turned out to be the story.” The publicists at Def Jam did a wonderful job of creating this idea. However, they failed to accurately plan travel time and accommodation for journalists. The absence of a crisis communication plan effected press coverage. Rihanna’s publicity team, having worked with her in the past, could have anticipated she might not make herself accessible to the press that was paid to attend. 52 Chapter XI: Recommendations For New Artists Should an artist without a publicist sign to a label? Should an artist with an independent publicist change relationships when signed to a label? The answer depends on how good the publicist is. Musicians that are serious about their music career should consider their own publicist. While it adds to an overall budget, a publicist will work with a band’s budget when negotiating a campaign. The key is researching firms and publicists to find the proper fit. Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR said that the number of actual press kits she has seen in present day are much more minimal than in the past. “A great one sheet will suffice in today’s digital world,” she said. “However, a thorough press kit consists of four parts: the bio; the photo; the articles, quotes CD reviews; and most importantly the CD.” New artists should seek the help of a professional publicist to construct this kit and help them get started. In the entertainment industry, a one-sheet or one sheet is a single document that summarizes a product for publicity and sales. Promotional one sheets are generally created through Adobe InDesign. Knowledge of this program and how to compose and effective one sheet that is visually pleasing and lists accomplishments is an essential task. While labels provide publicists and many outlets needed for recognition, it’s arguable that publicists are not needed for an aspiring musician’s career. Michelle Luna 53 believes that new bands should interact with fans online as much as possible and they should tour. “We’ve had bands reach out to local blogs and stations directly too. I think that is smart and goes a long way,” she said. “Do-it-Yourself methods usually seem more genuine than something coming from a label.” Just because a publicist works for the label, doesn’t mean he or she can get a musician the proper tools they need. An indie publicist might be able to narrow in on what specific audiences to reach for an artist but might not have the connections to be able to get it done. Neil Diamond publicist Sherrie Levy suggests that the biggest improvement in the changing music industry is that careers can be started and made without major record companies. “If an artist is determined and willing to work hard,” she added. To seek out the perfect publicist, musicians must be knowledgeable within the music industry and basic publicity concepts. Having a publicist will increase a musician’s media presence and help music reach a broader demographic. Before a publicist is recruited, artists should make sure they are ready to tackle multiple interviews and placement. While this can chalk up a lot of time, it is all for the betterment of an artist’s career. 54 Conclusion Public relations in the music industry is primarily designed to raise awareness of an artist in the press, to help build his or her story and also build up critical acclaim. In addition to receiving solid publicity however, an artist needs to build their loyal fan base and take care of them with sweet offers and quality content. Musicians should focus on their music reaching their mass audience rather than simply getting signed to a major label. They should find a publicist who has worked in both public relations and music separately before merging the two fields. This establishes that this publicist understand both sides, which as emphasized in this thesis, is essential. Music industry PR professionals with this experience have knowledge of how to successfully pitch an artist. The industry relies on awareness. A public relations professional interfaces with the artist: the media, world or industry tastemakers and gatekeepers to advance a career. While big names and record companies sometimes have relationships with media, no artist can be successful in present day without proper publicity. The role of a music publicist will continue to be required. Historically, major labels have helped play a role in helping some artists. For artists who need certain things, radio play being a big one, it may be reasonable to deal with a major. If one desires to be a successful musician, signing to a major label is now a choice, rather than a requirement. 55 Perhaps more difficult than getting signed to a major label is the search for a publicist that fits perfectly with the artist and his or her goals. Finding a publicist that represents the corresponding genre of an artist is important. If the publicist does not like a record, they may well have less enthusiasm promoting it. With an expanding market and growing competition, majors will be forced to adjust to more reasonable deals with artists. In such a cluttered market, a strong campaign possesses power, no matter what company is responsible for creating it. 56 Bibliography "About." CyberPR Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. "Aerosmith Contest: Be the Opening Act on Summer Tour." Guitar World. N.p., 13 May 2009. Web. <http://www.guitarworld.com/aerosmith-contest-be-opening-act-summer- tour-rules>. "Exclusive: Warner Chappell Reveals Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ Pot of Gold." Music Ally. N.p., 2008. Web. "Black Eyed Peas' Incredible £50k Glastonbury Backstage Demands." 3 Am Celebrity News. The Daily Mirror, 25 June 2009. Web. <http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity- news/black-eyed-peas-incredible-50k-794913>. "Brand Marketing- What Startup Founders Can Learn From Lady Gaga." Under30CEO, 10 Dec. 2012. Web. "DMG - Your One Stop Shop Music Clearance Provider." DMG Clearances, Inc.- Music Clearance Provider. N.p., n.d. Web. "Entertainment - Music, Arts & Culture." Rogers & Cowan. N.p., n.d. Web. "FMQB: Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News and More!" IFPI: Labels Still Invest Big Bucks In New Music. FMQB: Radio Industry News, Music Industry Updates, Arbitron Ratings, Music News and More!, 20 Mar. 2013. Web. "Money Matters." BMI, Music Royalty, Music Publishing, Music Licensing, Songwriter, Copyright, Composer. N.p., 2012. Web "Profile: Judy Miller Silverman, Motormouthmedia." CMJ, 19 Jan. 2011. Web. "Sports & Entertainment." Ketchum PR. N.p., n.d. Web. "Taylor Swift." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 2012. Web. "The Nielsen Company & Billboard's 2012 Music Industry Report." Press Release Distribution, Financial Disclosure, Online Newsrooms, PR, Public Relations, Investor Relations, EDGAR Filing, XBRL, Breaking News, Business News, Financial News. N.p., 4 Jan. 2013. Web. "What We Do - Music" B|W|R Public Relations. N.p., n.d. Web. 57 “What's inside Musician's Riders?" What's inside Musician's Riders? MSN, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. <http://entertainment.ca.msn.com/music/photos/gallery.aspx?cp- documentid=2265610 Adam Corolla Podcast. 1 Apr. 2012. Radio. Anderson, Kyle. "Katy Perry's Teenage Dream Actually Smells Like Cotton Candy."MTV Newsroom. Viacom Networks, 26 Aug. 2010. Web. http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/08/26/katy-perry-teenage-dream-cotton-candy Byrne, David. "David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music." Wired.com. Cantor, Paul. "Nicki Minaj Says Walmart and Target Aren't Selling "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up"" Complex.com, 26 Nov. 2012. Web. Cava, Marco Dell. "Vinyl's Sonic Perfection Finds New Fans in Digital Age." USA Today. Gannett, Jan. 2013. Web. Deckers, Erik, and Kyle Lacy. Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. Indianapolis, IN: Que Pub., 2011. Print. Dombal, Ryan. "Hall of Game." Pitchfork. N.p., 12 Aug. 2009. Web. Field, Shelly. Career Opportunities in the Music Industry. New York: Ferguson, 2010. Print. Fisher, Jason. "Stream The Album, Make It Cheaper – Social Distortion Puts Fans In Control of Record Price." Hypebot, 17 Jan. 2011. Web. <http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/01/stream-the-album-make-it-cheaper-social- distortion-puts-fans-in-control-of-record-price.html>. Garden State. By Zach Braff. Dir. Zach Braff. Perf. Zach Braff. Fox Searchlight, 2004. DVD. Goldman, David. "Music's Lost Decade: Sales Cut in Half." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 02 Feb. 2010. Web. Griffith, Erin. "The Music Industry Has Irreversibly Changed the Labels Have Not." PandoDaily, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. Heffernan, Virginia. "Lady Gaga's Fame Perfume Smells like Princesses and Unicorns, Not Little Monsters." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 14 Sept. 2012. Hession, Hugh. "Why Is It so Hard to Get Radio Airplay?" Making It In Music. N.p., 2010. Web. Horowitz, Bruce. "Best Super Bowl Ads: A Doggone Tie for Ad Meter." USAToday.com. 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2011. 58 <http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2011/super-bowl- admeter/43271432/1>. Hyatt, Ariel. "9 Critical Things You Should Know About Music Publicity Before You Make Your First Move." Hypebot. N.p., Oct. 2011. Web. Jefferson, Cord. "The Music Industry's Funny Money." The Root, 6 July 2010. Web. Knab, Christopher. "Music Publicity Plan - Sample Template." Music Publicity Plan - Sample Template. N.p., n.d. Web. Kreps, Daniel. "Kings of Leon Forced Offstage by Pigeons." Rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone Music, 26 July 2010. Web. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kings-of- leon-forced-offstage-by-pigeons- Leeds, Jeff. "Universal Music Settles Big Payola Case." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 May 2006. Web. Love, Courtney. "Courtney Love's Letter to Recording Artists." Courtney Love's Letter to Recording Artists. Gerry Hemingway, 2000. Web. McCormick, Neil. "Allen Klein: Bittersweet Symphony." The Telegraph, 6 July 2009. Web. McGrady, Chris. "There's No 'Wincing' at The Shins' Success." The Observer: Scene. The Observer, Sept. 2012. Web. <http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/2.2755/there-s-no- wincing-at-the-shins-success-1.262781>. Mediabase Published Panel, Web. Retrieved 2012, from Mediabase: <http://www.mediabase.com/WebLogon/WebLogon.asp>. Next Big Sound – Analytics and Insights for the Music Industry. Retrieved 2012, from NBS: < https://www.nextbigsound.com/features >. Payola Rules. Federal Communications Commission, n.d. Web. 2012. <http://www.fcc.gov/guides/payola Prato, Greg. "Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve." AllMusic by Rovi. Rovi Corporation, n.d. Web. <http://www.allmusic.com/song/bittersweet-symphony-mt0003763279>. Ray, Waddell. "Lady Gaga Tour Cancellation: A Look at the Damage." Billboard, 2013. Web. Raychel. "Music Sales Up For First Time Since 1999." The Frontliner. N.p., Jan. 2013. Web. RIAA (2010). Who We Are. Retrieved 2012, from RIAA: http://www.riaa.com/aboutus.php 59 Riemenschneider, Chris. "Lumineers Having a "hey" Day." Editorial. Star Tribune [Minneapolis, MN] 12 July 2012, Music sec.: n. pag. Print. Rosenthal, Jeff. "Rihanna's '777' Tour, Day 5: Escape From Berlin." Rolling Stone, Nov. 2012. Web. Serrano, Esteban. "Streaker on Rihanna's 777 Tour Plane! - Rihanna 777 Tour Day 5."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. Sisario, Ben. "As Music Streaming Grows, Artists’ Royalties Slow to a Trickle." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. Skepys, Brian. "Social Media Spotlight: Wrigley 5 Gum Brings Music Fest to YouTube | SMI." Social Media Spotlight: Wrigley 5 Gum Brings Music Fest to YouTube | SMI. N.p., Apr. 2011. Web. <http://socialmediainfluence.com/2011/04/18/social-media-spotlight- wrigley-5-gum-brings-music-fest-to-youtube/>. The Last Time (1965). Dir. Andrew Loong Oldham. Perf. Andrew Oldham Orchestra.YouTube. YCSMusic2, 20 June 2010. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKC5cdGBY04>. Tyrangiel, Josh. "Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want." TIME Entertainment. TIME Magazine, 1 Oct. 2007. Web. <http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1666973,00.html>. Waddell, Ray. "U2 to Snatch 'Biggest Tour Ever' Title This Weekend." Billboard, 8 Apr. 2011. Web. Widdicombe, Lizzie. "Teen Titan - The Man Who Made Justin Beiber." The New Yorker. The New Yorker-Profiles, 3 Sept. 2012. Web. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/03/120903fa_fact_widdicombe>.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This paper examines public relations professionals and how vital they have grown to be within the music industry. ❧ More specifically, this thesis explores a publicist’s responsibilities in the changing industry and effective strategies that have reduced the importance of record companies in an artist’s career. The old model of doing business is rapidly becoming obsolete. ❧ Once the 1990s approached, the industry was more predictable. The Internet’s influence began to grow and dominate causing things to change quickly. An example of this is that artists are now able to record and distribute their own content online without the help of a major label or contracts. Achieving the milestone of a record deal is a concept that is now vanishing. The idea of being “discovered” while paying to a small audience has grown somewhat impossible. ❧ The old music industry used to be all about the middleman, such as a record label, but now the middleman is rapidly diminishing. The industry needs someone who knows how to manipulate the middle machine in addition to mastering media coverage. Successful publicists should simply connect listeners to what they want and provide suggestions that they ultimately adopt. ❧ A s a result of declining music sales, the pressure to offer more of an experience than simply listening to an album release or worldwide tour has soared dramatically. A strong campaign or media influence can make the difference between an album or a single making the charts or not profiting without public knowledge.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

The Digital Revolution and its impact on the beauty industry

PDF

The impact of social media on the diabetes industry

PDF

The share factor: implications of global digital strategy for public relations

PDF

The visual literacy explosion: a brief history, relevant cases and commonly accepted practices

PDF

Crisis communication & natural disasters: communication plan for Rome, Italy in the case of an earthquake

PDF

Public health anti-obesity communication: an analysis of current campaigns for future guidance

PDF

Lights, camera, (call to) action: global public engagement in film launch campaigns

PDF

Cultural differences in communication patterns of international B2C technology companies on Weibo and Twitter: an examination of effectiveness from a motivation perspective

PDF

Collegiate athletics in crisis: a new practical model for crisis communication/management

PDF

Strategic communications in dietary supplement marketing — a case study of the marketing of Coenzyme Q10 supplements

PDF

Why public relations is important for the representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in entertainment

PDF

A study of the cultural environment of social media

PDF

Analyzing the decline of symphonic music in the United States: public relations strategies to attract Millennials

PDF

Digital impact: the impact of mobile digital technology on live music events and its influence on marketing, branding and public relations professionals

PDF

Musicians utilizing social media to increase brand awareness, further promote their brand and establish brand equity

PDF

60 years of magic: an in-depth look at Disneyland’s use of public relations strategies

PDF

The effects of poor practice in public relations: the Pennsylvania State football scandal

PDF

Creating brand evangelists in the 21st century: using brand engagement through social media to develop brand loyalty in teens

PDF

Evolution in the processed foods industry: exploring the impact of the health foods movement

PDF

6ix Gods: Drake, OVO and the rebranding of Toronto

Asset Metadata

Creator Markell, Amanda (author)

Core Title Public relations in the music business: how publicists continue to improve a changing industry

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Strategic Public Relations

Publication Date 05/07/2013

Defense Date 05/07/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag music,Music Industry,OAI-PMH Harvest,Public Relations,publicity

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Floto, Jennifer D. (committee chair), LeVeque, Matthew (committee member), Tenderich, Burghardt (committee member)

Creator Email amandamarkell@gmail.com,markell@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-252313

Unique identifier UC11294020

Identifier etd-MarkellAma-1666.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-252313 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-MarkellAma-1666.pdf

Dmrecord 252313

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Markell, Amanda

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA